Obs. exc. dial. [? a. Du. lukken, f. luk LUCK sb. (But possibly an Eng. formation, though in our quots. appearing earlier than the vb.)]
1. intr. To chance, happen. Usu. with defining adv.: To turn out well, ill, etc., to have (good or bad) luck. Also impers. (with or without it).
14[?]. Billa posita super hostium majoris, in Hartshorne, Metr. T., 225. See wich a scrowe is set on thie gate Warning the of harde Happes For and it lukke thou shalt have swappes.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 35. Whan it so lucked that we toke an oxe or a cowe.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, II. 494. Our first labor thus lucked well with us.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., IX. 218. With thame of Cathnes lucket sa il, that [etc.].
1601. Ogle, Vere’s Parlie at Ostend, in Sir F. Vere’s Comm., 144. The first (and that is the word) it lucked well, judging the fact by the event.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 14 (1713), I. 92. They that Addressed were the only Freeborn English, and they that did not Address, were to be Slaves to them, if they had luck’t right.
1810. Cock, Strains, II. 65 (E. D. D.). Lat me tell ye, thro’ the week Your wark wad luck the better.
b. To be lucky, prosper, succeed.
a. 1584. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 643. Thocht thay now, I say now, To hazard hes na hart; Ȝit luck we, and pluck we The fruit, they would haue part.
1877. Gordon Fraser, Wigtown, 212. Ill-gotten gear can never luck.
c. With upon: To hit upon by chance; to chance to find or meet with.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 35. Whereas there be so many thousand words in the world, and that he should luck upon the right one.
a. 1683. Oldham, Art Poetry, Some New Pieces (1684), 30. When such a lewd, incorrigible sot Lucks by meer chance upon some happy thought.
1712. Oldisworth, Odes of Horace, II. 27/1. The most Renowned Thomas Gale … has luckt upon another Interpretation.
d. With inf.: To chance, to have the good luck (to do something).
1724. Ramsay, Lochaber No More, iii. If I should luck to come gloriously hame.
1787. W. Taylor, Scots Poems, 103. Gin I shou’d luck to get a plummy sowd.
† 2. trans. To bring good luck to. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 615/2. I lucke one, I make hym luckye or happye, je heure. He is a happy person, for he lucketh every place he commeth in.
