Luck Definition

lŭk

lucked, lucks

noun

lucks

The chance happening of events with respect to how they affect someone; fortune; fate.

Webster's New World

Good fortune as the result of chance.

Success is based on hard work and a bit of luck.

Webster's New World

Success; favorable outcome.

An experienced gardener should have great luck growing annuals.

Webster's New World

One's personal fate or lot.

It was just my luck to win a trip I couldn't take.

American Heritage

An object, action, etc. believed to bring or portend good or bad fortune.

Seeing a black cat is bad luck.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Antonyms:
bad fortune
misfortune
bad-luck
failure
ill-fortune

verb

lucked, lucks

To be lucky enough to come (into, on, through, etc.)

Webster's New World

To gain success or something desirable by chance.

Lucked into a good apartment; lucked out in finding that rare book.

American Heritage

(intransitive) To rely on luck.

No plan. We're just to going to have to luck through.

Wiktionary

To carry out relying on luck.

Our plan is to luck it through.

Wiktionary

pronoun

A surname.

Wiktionary

idiom

as luck would have it

As it turned out; as it happened:
As luck would have it, it rained the day of the picnic.

American Heritage

in luck

Enjoying success; fortunate.

American Heritage

out of luck

Lacking good fortune.

American Heritage

press

To risk one's good fortune, often by acting overconfidently.

American Heritage

try (one's) luck

To attempt something without knowing if one will be successful.

American Heritage

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Luck

Origin of Luck

Loaned into English in the 15th century (probably as a gambling term) from Middle Dutch luc, a shortened form of: gheluc (“good fortune") (whence Modern Dutch geluk). Middle Dutch luc, gheluc is paralleled by Middle High German lück, gelücke (modern German Glück). The word occurs only from the 12th century, apparently first in Rhine Frankish. Perhaps from an Old Frankish *galukki. The word enters standard Middle High German during the 13th century, and spreads to English and Scandinavian in the Late Middle Ages. Its origin seems to have been regional or dialectal, and there were competing German words such as gevelle or schick, or the Latinate fortune. Its etymology is unknown, although there are numerous proposals as to its derivations from a number of roots.

From Wiktionary
From Middle English luk, lukke, related to Old Frisian luk (“luck"), West Frisian gelok (“luck"), Dutch geluk (“luck"), Low German luk (“luck"), German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness"), Danish lykke (“luck"), Swedish lycka (“luck"), Icelandic lukka (“luck").

From Wiktionary
Use as a verb in American English is late (1940s), but there was a Middle English verb lukken "to chance, to happen by good fortune" in the 15th century.

From Wiktionary
Middle English lucke from Middle Dutch luc short for gheluc

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From the given name Luke.

From Wiktionary