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lottery|ˈlɒtərɪ|
Forms: 6 lottary(e, -erye, lottre, 6–7 lotarie, -ery, lotterie, 7 lottarie, lottire, lottrie, lottry, 6– lottery.
[ad. It. lotteria (whence F. loterie, 1658 in Hatz.-Darm.), f. lotto: see lot n., lotto.]
1. An arrangement for the distribution of prizes by chance among persons purchasing tickets. Slips or lots, numbered in correspondence with the tickets, and representing either prizes or blanks, are drawn from a wheel. Usually intended as a means of raising money for the benefit of the promoters, of the State, or of some charitable institution. † lottery general, a public or state lottery.
1567Lottery Chart Aug., A very rich Lotterie generall, without any Blanckes, contayning a great number of good Prices, aswel of redy Money as of Plate,..the same Lotterie is erected by Her Maiesties order, to the intent that suche commoditie as may chaunce to arise thereof,..may be conuerted towards the reparation of the Hauens, and strength of the Realme. 1568Nottingham Rec. IV. 132 The proclamasyon for the Lottre. 1587Stow Summarie Chron. 434 A Lotery for meruailous rich and bewtifull armour, was begun to be drawen at London. 1588Fraunce Lawiers Log. ii. xvii. 116 Every rule were written in a severall schrole, every schrole being put into an earthen pitcher as they use in lottaries. 1626Donne Serm. iv. (1848) I. 62 He comes not to the Sacrament as to a Lottery where perchance he may draw Salvation. 1668Advt. in Lond. Gaz. No. 261/4 Mr. Ogilby's Lottery of Books opens on Monday the 25th instant. 1710Steele Tatler No. 170 ⁋5 Tickets for the Lottery appointed by the Government. 1731Fielding Lottery ii. 28, I had no Fortune, but what I promis'd my self from the Lottery. 1769Junius Lett. (1804) I. 7 If it must be paid by Parliament, let me advise the Chancellor of the Exchequer to think of some better expedient than a lottery. 1805Hansard's Parl. Deb. VI. 358 Mr. Alderman Combe presented a petition from several persons, owners..of houses,..praying leave to dispose of the same by way of lottery. 1842Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. ix. 153 My mother's fortune was large, my father's good, legacies from both sides, a twenty thousand prize in the lottery—all have vanished.
b. transf. and fig.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 32 The lotterie that hee hath deuised in these three chests of gold, siluer, and leade. 1596Drayton Leg. ii. 153 Thinke how thou liu'st here publikely in Court,.. Being a Lotterie whereat few doe winne. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xxii. 212 Marriage shall prove no lottery to thee, when the hand of providence chuseth for thee, who, if drawing a blank, can turn it into a prize by sanctifying a bad wife unto thee. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) I. 14 (Desobligeant) Knowledge and improvements are to be got by sailing and posting for that purpose; but whether useful knowledge and real improvements, is all a lottery. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 10 July, If I have not been lucky in the lottery of life. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 19 Such desires make life a hideous lottery, where every day may turn up a blank. 1901Scotsman 28 Feb. 7/2 What a lottery it is, this being mentioned in dispatches.
†2. Decision by casting or drawing of lots, sortilege, appeal to the lot. Also: Chance, issue of events as determined by chance. Obs.
1570Levins Manip. 105/5 A Lottery, sortilicium. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xi. x. (1886) 159 The cousening art of sortilege or lotarie. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 119 So let high-sighted-Tyranny range on, Till each man drop by Lottery. 1606― Tr. & Cr. ii. i. 140 Who shall answer him? Achil. I know not, 'tis put to Lottry. 1613Beaum. & Fl. Honest Man's Fort. iv. i, Fainting under Fortunes false Lottery. 1619Gataker Lots 6 Lotery is the deciding or determination of a doubt by some casuall euent. 1663Aron-bimnucha 4 Such was the Lotery that discovered the Theft and Sacriledge committed at Jericho.
†3. Something which comes to a person by lot or fortune. Obs.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 248 If Beauty, Wisedome, Modesty, can settle The heart of Anthony: Octauia is A blessed Lottery to him.
4. A round game at cards, in which prizes are obtained by the holders of certain cards.
1830R. Hardie Hoyle made familiar 84 Lottery. This is one of the most amusing of those games which are played merely for amusement. Ibid. 86 Each player..stakes a certain number of counters..which are placed in a box or pool as a fund for the lottery. 1876‘Capt. Crawley’ Card Players' Man. 233.
5. attrib. and Comb., as lottery-book, lottery-mania, lottery-subscription, lottery ticket; † lottery-ball, ? a ball used for drawing at a lottery; † lottery-barber (see quot.); † lottery-broker, one who acts as agent for the sale of lottery tickets; † lottery-cavalier (see quot.); † lottery-fool, ? a buffoon employed to attract custom to a lottery; † lottery-lantern, a lantern bearing transparencies advertising a lottery; lottery-man = lottery-broker; lottery-office, an office for the carrying on of lotteries; hence lottery-office-keeper; † lottery-pot = lot-pot (see lot n. 10); † lottery-puff, -squib, an interested advertisement of a lottery; † lottery-vagrant, ? a vagrant making a pretence of selling lottery tickets; lottery-wheel, a piece of mechanism used in lotteries, consisting of a vertical wheel bearing on its axis a drum into which the numbered slips are placed and from which they are drawn after being shuffled by the revolution of the wheel.
1696E. Lhwyd in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 463, I have one given me, cut like a *Lottery-ball, and perforated.
1777Ann. Reg. 207 *Lottery barbers, where a man for being shaved and paying three-pence may stand a chance of getting ten pound.
1783Bp. Percy Let. to S. Pegge in Nichols Illust. Lit. Hist. (1858) VIII. 225 Could you procure access to the Commissioners' own *Lottery Books, and thence inform me of the fate of No. 24,380.
1794C. Pigott Female Jockey Club Pref. 20 Contemplate the adventurous *lottery brokers, driving their hard bargains, with a..peculating minister.
1682Dryden Epil. to ‘Unhap. Favourite’ 5 Not *lottery cavaliers are half so poor. [Note. ‘Lottery cavaliers’ are poor loyal officers, to whom the right of keeping lotteries was granted by patent in Charles II's reign.]
1690Crowne Eng. Friar v. Dram. Wks. 1874 IV. 100 The honour of a dueller is but the honour of a *lottery-fool.
1774Foote Cozeners i. Wks. 1799 II. 155 De *lottery-lanthorns hang up in de streets, vid large red letters, write on all sides.
1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3333/4 Mr. Sherwood a *Lottery Man.
1775Misc. in Ann. Reg. 190/1 My whole house had..been infected with the *lottery mania,—(if I may be allowed the expression).
1772Town & Country Mag. 130 Mr. Jesson, who keeps a *lottery-office under the piazzas, Covent Garden. 1827Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 513 In truth we could name ‘lottery-office-keepers’ in real holy orders and pretended holy orders.
1629H. Burton Babel no Bethel 1 Scroles shufled together in a *lottery pott.
1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. (1824) II. iii. 68 By taking out a couple of sudden deaths, a fire in Oxford-market, a *lottery puff, [etc.]..we make room for the paragraph. 1817Parl. Debates 732 Those misrepresentations and fabrications called lottery puffs.
1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. (1824) III. v. 180 Curse me if the stupid dunce of an editor did not put it in the puffing corner, with two *lottery squibs and a wonderful cure of the gout by electricity.
1844Thackeray May Gambols Wks. 1900 XIII. 420 The *lottery-subscription lies in limbo.
1697–8Act 9 Will. III c. 37 §2 The more orderly Payment of the *Lottery Tickets for the said Annuities. 1873H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. vii. 149 In the holder of a lottery ticket, hope generates a belief utterly at variance with probability as numerically estimated.
1799Naval Chron. II. 318 An idle or suspicious character, or *lottery vagrant.
1819Shelley P. Bell 3rd vi. xiii. 5 A world of words—false, true—and foul and fair—As in a *lottery-wheel are shook. 1827Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1439 [An engraving of] The Lottery Wheel, 1826. |