chance-medley

American  

[chans-med-lee, chahns-] / ˈtʃænsˌmɛd li, ˈtʃɑns- /

noun

Law.

1. a killing occurring during a sudden and unpredicted encounter.

2. aimless and random action.

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chance-medley British  

noun

1. law a sudden quarrel in which one party kills another; unintentional but not blameless killing

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Etymology

Origin of chance-medley

First recorded in 1485–95, chance-medley is from Anglo-French chance medlee

Example Sentences

First, it might be called chance-medley; next, there would be a doubt whether the stab or shot was not given in self-defence, and was not intended to kill.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet it was all accident, chance-medley—excusable, of course.

From Project Gutenberg

There is no chance-medley where he rules, because of his long, distributed lights, and straight, infallible, divergent shadows that pick off the points and pinnacles of a thousand distances.

From Project Gutenberg

Did any man ever identify the bed he slept in, the table he ate at, half a century ago, in the chance-medley of second-hand—third-hand—furniture his father's insolvency or his own consigned it to?

From Project Gutenberg

His past went soberly before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and strenuous like a dream, random as a chance-medley—a scene of defeat.

From Project Gutenberg