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 sb., 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.
1567. Lottery 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.
1568. Nottingham Rec., IV. 132. The proclamasyon for the Lottre.
1587. Stow, Summarie Chron., 434. A Lotery for meruailous rich and bewtifull armour, was begun to be drawen at London.
1588. Fraunce, 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.
1626. Donne, Serm., iv. (1848), I. 62. He comes not to the Sacrament as to a Lottery where perchance he may draw Salvation.
1668. Advt., in Lond. Gaz., No. 261/4. Mr. Ogilby’s Lottery of Books opens on Monday the 25th instant.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 170, ¶ 5. Tickets for the Lottery appointed by the Government.
1731. Fielding, Lottery, ii. 28. I had no Fortune, but what I promis’d my self from the Lottery.
1769. Junius 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.
1805. Hansard’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.
1842. Miss 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.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 32. The lotterie that hee hath deuised in these three chests of gold, siluer, and leade.
1596. Drayton, Leg., II. 153. Thinke how thou liu’st here publikely in Court,… Being a Lotterie whereat few doe winne.
1642. Fuller, 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.
1768. Sterne, 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.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 10 July. If I have not been lucky in the lottery of life.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt (1868), 19. Such desires make life a hideous lottery, where every day may turn up a blank.
1901. Scotsman, 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.
1570. Levins, Manip., 105/5. A Lottery, sortilicium.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XI. x. (1886), 159. The cousening art of sortilege or lotarie.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 119. So let high-sighted-Tyranny range on, Till each man drop by Lottery. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., II. i. 140. Who shall answer him? Achil. I know not, ’tis put to Lottry.
1613. Beaum. & Fl., Honest Man’s Fort., IV. i. Fainting under Fortunes false Lottery.
1619. Gataker, Lots, 6. Lotery is the deciding or determination of a doubt by some casuall euent.
1663. Aron-bimnucha, 4. Such was the Lotery that discovered the Theft and Sacriledge committed at Jericho.
† 3. Something that comes to a person by lot or fortune. Obs.
1606. Shaks., 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.
1830. R. 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, -mania, -subscription, 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 sb. 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.
1696. E. Lhwyd, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 463. I have one given me, cut like a *Lottery-ball, and perforated.
1777. Ann. Reg., 207. *Lottery barbers, where a man for being shaved and paying three-pence may stand a chance of getting ten pound.
1783. Bp. 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.
1794. C. Pigott, Female Jockey Club, Pref. 20. Contemplate the adventurous *lottery brokers, driving their hard bargains, with a … peculating minister.
1682. Dryden, 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.]
1690. Crowne, Eng. Friar, V. Dram. Wks. 1874, IV. 100. The honour of a dueller is but the honour of a *lottery-fool.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, I. Wks. 1799, II. 155. De *lottery-lanthorns hang up in de streets, vid large red letters, write on all sides.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3333/4. Mr. Sherwood a *Lottery Man.
1775. Misc., in Ann. Reg., 190/1. My whole house had … been infected with the *lottery mania,—(if I may be allowed the expression).
1772. Town & Country Mag., 130. Mr. Jesson, who keeps a *lottery-office under the piazzas, Covent Garden.
1827. Gentl. Mag., XCVII. II. 513. In truth we could name ‘lottery-office-keepers’ in real holy orders and pretended holy orders.
1629. H. Burton, Babel no Bethel, 1. Scroles shufled together in a *lottery pott.
1806. 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.
1817. Parl. Debates, 732. Those misrepresentations and fabrications called lottery puffs.
1806. 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.
1844. Thackeray, May Gambols, Wks. 1900, XIII. 420. The *lottery-subscription lies in limbo.
1697–8. Act 9 Will. III., c. 37 § 2. The more orderly Payment of the *Lottery Tickets for the said Annuities.
1873. H. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., vii. 149. In the holder of a lottery ticket, hope generates a belief utterly at variance with probability as numerically estimated.
1799. Naval Chron., II. 318. An idle or suspicious character, or *lottery vagrant.
1819. Shelley, P. Bell 3rd, VI. xiii. 5. A world of words—false, true—and foul and fair—As in a *lottery-wheel are shook.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1439. [An engraving of] The Lottery Wheel, 1826.
