chancer

American

[chan-ser, chahn-] / ˈtʃæn sər, ˈtʃɑn- /

noun

Chiefly British.

a person who takes many risks.

chancer British

/ ˈtʃɑːnsə /

noun

slang an unscrupulous or dishonest opportunist who is prepared to try any dubious scheme for making money or furthering his or her own ends

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of chancer

First recorded in 1880–85; chance + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

chancer

Critics then and later saw Disraeli as an opportunist—a bit of a chancer, in British parlance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

People can tell the difference between a golfer and, well, a chancer.

From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026

Flitcroft was front and back page news, with headlines celebrating the plucky chancer who had conned the R&A.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2022

Even as a young woman my mother had always been a gallus thing: a chancer, gregarious, desirous of any shiny bauble.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 6, 2020

I don’t want the minds of these boys destroyed by that chancer up there on the platform, him handing out apple skins and causing diarrhea right and left.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023