Wanchancy

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Unlucky; unchancy. Scotland, dialectal
  2. 2
    Wicked. Scotland, dialectal

    "It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about cottage doors in the gloaming."

Example

More examples

"It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about cottage doors in the gloaming."

Etymology

From wan- + chancy. Compare unchancy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.