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Glite Dictionary
to fancy one's chances

to fancy one's chances

1 7.8
To think you will be successful in a situation
  • idiom
translation icon : creer en las posibilidades
  • Magistrate?I'm prosecuting, and I don't fancy your chances in court.

Examples

  • Do you really fancy your chances of getting that job?

  • Well, I'm not sure I fancy his chances now.

    AstroVan (2025)

  • And I don't fancy your chances against him.

    Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

  • Anyway, just had huge difficulty trying to persuade my class to read page one of Jane Eyre, so, I don't fancy my chances with a fun run.

    Patrick (2018)

  • I fancy my chances of winning the game this time.

  • He fancied his chances against the reigning champion.

Synonyms

to get one's hopes up
vsto fancy one's chances
  • Informal
34 5.6

To become too excited about something that might not happen

believes success is likely rather than merely feeling hopeful

Antonyms

doubt
∞ 1.6

A feeling of not being sure about something

to despair
44 4.1

To lose all hope

How Likely

to expect
∞ 1.0
to fancy one's chances
1 7.8
to hope
∞ 1.0
guess
768 1.0

Surface Forms

fancy one's chances infinitive
fancying one's chances present participle
fancies one's chances third person singular
fancied one's chances past
fancied one's chances past participle

Morphology

fancy + one + chance

The verb 'fancy' in the sense 'to suppose' combined with 'one's chances' (one's likelihood) yields a directly compositional meaning of 'suppose one is likely to succeed.' This follows a regular verb + object pattern and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can derive the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Fancy one's chances comes from an old use of fancy meaning 'to imagine', so you mentally picture your chances. So if you 'fancy your chances', you imagine you will win and think you are 'likely to be successful'.