Also 6 luckye, lukie, lukky, 6–7 luckie. [f. LUCK sb. + -Y1.]
1. Of persons: Having, or attended by, good luck. In early use often, Fortunate, successful, prosperous. Now with narrower meaning: Favored by chance; successful through causes other than one’s own action or merit.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 159. God Almyghty yeue you parte of his saluacion and make you lukky.
1530. Tindale, Gen. xxxix. 2. And the Lorde was with Ioseph, and he was a luckie felowe.
1552. Latimer, Serm. Lincolnsh., i. (1562), 68. And therefore there is a common sayinge The more wicked, the more lucky.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 120. He never is luckie in the framing of his consequences.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Negotiating (Arb.), 89. Vse also such, as haue beene Luckie and Preuailed before in Things wherein you haue Emploied them.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 96. It is part of the description of a lucky, and prosperous man, that his Cow calveth.
1827. Scott, Two Drovers, ii. Wakefield was lucky enough to find a chap for a part of his drove.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xii. He has come into his property…. He’s a lucky dog.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 183. A dexterous and lucky player.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xiii. He must be a luckier man than you are.
† b. Of a person: Having the knack of success; ‘handy’ (Davies). Obs.
1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Love’s Contriv., I. Wks. 1761, II. 19. You used to be a lucky Rogue upon a Pinch.
c. Of actions or experiences: Attended by good luck.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par., Pref. 10. Whose fortunate and luckye spede in all hys woorthye entrepryses.
1548. Lady Eliz. Howard, Let. to Q. Dowager Parr. Praying the Almighty God to send you a most lucky deliverance [in childbirth].
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 184 b. Geuing thankes to his god, for that lucky successe.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IX. 454. Ev’n then he dreamt of Drink and lucky Play.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iii. (1849), I. 62. There are instances of reason and real prudence preventing men’s undertaking what, it hath appeared afterwards, they might have succeeded in by a lucky rashness.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 699. And what’s good judgement but a lucky guess?
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 537. Less lucky her home-voyage.
d. Of a literary composition: Having an unstudied or unsought felicity.
1700. T. Brown, trans. Fresny’s Amusem. Ser. & Com., 6. There is more Wit in disguising a Thought of Mr. Lock’s, than in a lucky Translation of a Passage from Horace.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Cowley. He has no elegance either lucky or elaborate. Ibid., Waller. Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus.
2. Of events or circumstances: Of the nature of good luck; occurring by chance and producing happy results.
a. 1547. Surrey, Praise of meane & constant estate, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 28. When lucky gale of winde All thy puft sailes shall fil.
1653. Walton, Angler, xi. 207. Well met, Gentlemen, this is luckie that we meet so just together at this very door.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. v. By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not discharged myself of any part of it.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 192, ¶ 2. His heir … sometimes by a wealthy marriage, sometimes by lucky legacies, discharged part of the encumbrances.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., x. (1813), 213. This was a lucky recollection—it saved her from something like regret.
3. With superstitious reference: Presaging or likely to promote good luck; well-omened. Often applied to objects carried as charms, as in lucky penny, sixpence (usually one bent or perforated; sometimes an old or foreign coin), lucky stone (often, one with a natural hole through it: see E.D.D.).
Lucky day, etc., may be used also in sense 1 C.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. 44. With all good and luckye woordes, blessed … bee God.
1555. Bradford, Lett., in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), II. 1632/1. Looke not vppon these dayes … as dismall dayes … but rather as lucky dayes.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 252. That his good receipt Shall for my legacie be sanctified By the luckiest stars in heauen.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. ii. They say, a Fool’s hansel is lucky.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 20. So may som gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destin’d Urn.
1718. Freethinker, No. 62. 46. Sneezing … might be interpreted Lucky, or Unlucky, according to the Occasions.
1727. Pope, Th. Var. Subjects, in Swift’s Wks. (1755), II. I. 231. Augustus meeting an ass with a lucky name foretold himself good fortune.
1792. W. Roberts, Looker-on, No. 22 (1797), I. 332. It has often happened … that a dream, by presenting to the imagination a lucky number, has induced a poor man to commit himself in the lottery.
1819. Crabbe, T. of Hall, XIX. She praised her lucky stars, that in her place She never found neglect, nor felt disgrace.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxxii. Mr. Guppy nods, and gives him a ‘lucky touch.’
1855. Q. Victoria, Life Highlands, 10 Sept. (1868), 105. The new house seems to be lucky, indeed; for, from the first moment of our arrival, we have had good news.
4. Occurring by chance; depending on chance; casual, fortuitous. rare.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 23. It were beyond the Possibility of the Wit of Man to perswade him that this was done by the temerarious dashes of an unguided Pen … or by the lucky Projection of so many Letters at all adventures.
1701. Rowe, Ambit. Step-Moth., I. i. My Royal Mistress Artemisa’s Fate, And all her Son young Artaban’s high hopes Hang on this lucky Crisis.
1836. Emerson, Nat., Lang., Wks. (Bohn), II. 150. There is nothing lucky or capricious in these analogies … they are constant, and pervade nature.
5. dial. Used to indicate an amount not less, and usually greater, than what is actually stated; full, good. (For this and other dialect uses of the word, consult the Eng. Dial. Dict.)
1649. Last Sp. Visct. Kemmure, in Sel. Biog. (Wodrow Soc., 1845), I. 384. God … plucked them from their deceiving hopes, before they got half a bellyful, yea, or a lucky mouthful of the world.
1823. Galt, R. Gilhaize, II. xxxii. 315. The sun has been set a lucky hour.
1828. J. Ruddiman, Tales & Sc. Par. (1889), 125. I aye had my doubts … o’ cats in general, for the lucky half o’ them are but handmaidens to witches.
6. Sc. Used as a term or address of endearment, esp. to a woman. [Cf. Icel. heill good luck, ‘in mod. usage as a term of endearment’ (Vigfusson).] Hence lucky-dad, -daddy, a grandfather; lucky-minny (-minnie), a grandmother. (Cf. LUCKY sb.1)
a. 1555. Lyndesay, in Bannatyne Poems (Hunter. Club), 465. [Cotter addressing his wife] Ye gaif me leif, fair lucky dame.
1721. Kelly, Scot. Prov., 164. Ha’d your Feet, luckie daddie, old Folk are not feery.
1742. Forbes, Ajax Sp. etc. Jrnl. (1755), 30. Lucky-minny.
a. 1758. Ramsay, Fox turned Preacher, 36. ’Tis cruel, and a cruelty By which we are expos’d (O sad!) To eat perhaps our lucky dad.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlvii. The bits o’ bairns, puir things, are wearying to see their luckie-dad.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Lucky minie’s lines, the long stems of the sea-plant Chorda filum.
1868. G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, xxiii. (1870), 150. That auld luckie-minnie o’ his.
7. Comb., as lucky-starred adj.; lucky-proach Sc. = FATHER-LASHER.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, I. 63. Father-Lasher, Long-Spined Cottus. Lucky Proach. Scotland.
1876. Patmore, The Rosy Bosom’d Hours, 3. He lock’d us in, ah, lucky-starr’d.
