Also 5–6 ventur. β. 6–7 (9 dial.) venter, [Aphetic f. aventure ADVENTURE sb.: cf. It. and Pg. ventura. In some senses perh. from the verb.
The form is no doubt partly due to the initial a- of aventure having been taken as the indefinite article, esp. after the stressing ave·nture had become usual. In 15th-cent. texts it is probable that occasional instances of a venture or a venter should be read as one word.]
I. † 1. Fortune, luck; chance. = ADVENTURE 1.
a. 1450. Le Morte Arth., 2811. Launcelot saw ther was no socoure, nedysse muste he hys venture abyde.
† b. A venture’s stroke, one delivered at a venture; a chance stroke. Obs.–1
c. 1450. in Rel. Ant., I. 308. Come in with a rake in every a syde, An hole rownde and an halfe, wath so hit betyde, iiij. quarters and a rownd and a ventures stroke wyth.
c. At a venture, at random, by chance, without due consideration or thought; = ADVENTURE 3 b.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., IV. vii. Howe at a venture, and by sodayne chaunce He met with Fame, by fortunes purueyaunce.
c. 1590. Sir T. More, IV. i. 157. Then, good Inclination, beginne at a venter.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 15. But if the things aforesaid be not … weighed or marked, but be sold at a venture.
1611. Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 34. A certaine man drew a bow at a venture.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, II. (1722), 215. ’Tis possible that I may several times by guess, or at a venture, hit upon it.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xv. (1840), 256. They should rather fire at a venture.
1780. Cowper, Lett., 2 June. I never in my life began a letter more at a venture than the present.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 77. As I no longer knew where I was, I continued swimming at a venture.
1886. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Paston Carew, xvi. ‘And your mother was an Indian,’ said Lady Jane, drawing her bow at a venture.
† 2. Danger, jeopardy, hazard or peril; the chance or risk of incurring harm or loss. Obs.
α. 1550. Crowley, Last Trumpet, 655. Thy lyfe thou must put in venture For Christes congregation.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 79. [He pressed] on the Persians, that they desired to come off without more venture, and so … retired home.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 156. By this way the Seed was put into the Husbandmans hand, and no venture to him.
c. 1705. Pope, Jan. & May, 182. The venture’s greater, I presume to say, To give your person, than your goods away.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxviii. ‘Nevertheless,’ said the King, ‘it is not our pleasure so to put thee in venture.’
β. 1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. iii. One that hath now made the sixth returne upon venter.
1623. T. Scot, Highw. God, 75. The venter and hazard is the buyers and the sellers, but the certaine gaine fals betwixt both to the usurer.
1640. Habington, Edw. IV., 90. When she perceived the Lords earnest to have the Prince present in the battle, shee violently opposed. In respect of his youth, want of experience, and the so mighty venter.
† b. To run the venture of, to run the risk of.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 169. To run the venture of the gallows rather than the venture of starving.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 164. [He] had rather forego his known right than run the venture of doing even a hard thing.
3. An act or occasion of trying one’s chance or fortune; a course or proceeding the outcome of which is uncertain, but which is attended by the risk of danger or loss; an enterprise, operation or undertaking of a hazardous or risky nature.
a. 1566. R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias, E j b. Gronno. Wilt thou venter thy life for a man so fondly? Pithias. It is no venter, my friende is iust, for whom I desire to die.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., IV. i. I’ll be your scholar, I cannot lose much by the venture sure.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., Ded. Let. A 4. Your Charity … made you so resolute and pressing to have me run a Venture, which you are pleas’d to think but a very Small One.
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 181. The rest, which they durst not remove, for fear of endangering all at one venture.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, VII. xxiii. No bailiff dared … to enter; A man would bear upon his face, For fifteen months,… The yawn of such a venture.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. v. 60. I made the desperate venture of sending off my … huntsman … to find the Esquimaux.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), II. 326. He deemed it better not to make his great venture till he had strengthened his force.
transf. 1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., I. 7. A kind of probationary venture of the will.
† b. In the phrases to put in or to a (or the) venture, to hazard or risk. Obs.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 18. I have put my selfe to the venture to goe as far as Gascogny to seek you out.
1639. S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 101. He resolved to put all in a venture.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, 146. How loath would I bee … to have the matter put to a venture.
c. 1670. M. Bruce, Gd. News in Evil Times, etc. (1708), 33. This Love of Christ makes us put all to the venture; what loss had thir poor Women that put their All to the venture for him?
1700. S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 323. As soon as they have paid their Debts, what is left they put to the venture.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Adventure, to venture, or put to the Venture, to hazard.
† c. To give the venture, to make the attempt.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. II. 58. That although the people were blacke and naked, yet they were ciuill: so that hee would needs giue the venter without the consent of the rest to go without weapon.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 194. Then Patroclus gave the venture.
1652. Heylin, Cosmogr., 28. However I will give the venture, and make as … profitable a discovery, as the times enable me, of the whole World.
d. An adventure or remarkable feat, incident, etc. rare.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. i. The race of yore, Who … told our marvelling boyhood legends store, Of their strange ventures happ’d by land or sea.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, vi. The ventures of the Greeks are surrounded by such a multitude of imagined dangers, that [etc.].
4. An enterprise of a business nature in which there is considerable risk of loss as well as chance of gain; a commercial speculation.
1584–7. Greene, Carde of Fancie, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 145. Your venter was much, but your gaines such, as … you are like to liue by the losse.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 270. Hath all his ventures faild, what not one hit?
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, I. ii. If you died to day, And gaue him all,… What large returne would come of all his venters. Ibid. (1610), Alch., II. ii. But I buy it. My venter brings it me.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 3 Oct. I heard the Duke speak of a great design that he and my Lord of Pembroke have … of sending a venture to some parts of Africa, to dig for gold ore there.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xvii. 219. Of both he keeps his ledger:—there he reads Of gainful ventures and of godly deeds.
1867. Smiles, Huguenots Eng., i. 5. [He] agreed to join them in their venture, and supply them with the necessary means.
1884. Law Rep., 29 Chanc. Div. 465. Inducing other people to spend their money … on such a venture as a limited company.
b. That which is ventured or risked in a commercial enterprise or speculation.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 69. There’s a whole Marchants venture of Burdeux-Stuffe in him.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. iii. He may pricke his foot with a thorne, and be as much as the whole venter is worth.
a. 1764. R. Lloyd, Temple Fav., Poet. Wks. 1774, II. 135. The consequence has Æsop told, He lost his venture, sheep and gold.
1771. Mme. D’Arblay, Early Diary, 3 June. As to merchandise, the few ventures he took out with him, he has brought back unchanged.
1814. Canning, in Croker Papers (1884), I. 57. It is the ship Kingsmill,… destined for the East Indies…. She is a venture of 40,000l.
1841. Stephen, Comm. Laws Eng. (1874). II. 565. The importer is now enabled to bring his goods into this country, without being obliged to pay the duties until he finds for his venture either a foreign or a home purchaser.
† 5. Chance or risk of something (Sc.); also ellipt., chance of being efficacious or beneficial. Obs.
1623. Lodge, Poore Mars Talent, Wks. (Hunt. Cl.), IV. 16. Dropp … two or three dropps into your eies. If you could get the liuer of a buck and mix it with these, it would bee the better, and the water would haue greater venture.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. (1862), I. lxxviii. 200. Your Lordship hath now a blessed venture of winning court with the Prince of the Kings of the earth.
1671. M. Bruce, Gd. News in Evil Times, Pref. (1708), A 2. That it is better for you to come and take your venture of suffering nor bide away.
6. The (or an) act of venturing upon something; an attempt at some action; also, the means or result of so venturing.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, Preface 6. A few short papers, under the title of this little venture, appeared at intervals in Bentley’s Miscellany.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, iv. § 3. 96. There are many forms of so called decoration in architecture, habitual, and received,… without any venture at expression of dislike.
1883. Meredith, Earth & Man, i. On her great venture, Man, Earth gazes.
7. = ADVENTURE sb. 8. rare.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, vi. Navigating the seas of their forefathers with the same heroic … spirit of venture.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 26. Who … fled from pomp of Courts … to win lost souls … with loving venture.
II. † 8. A prostitute; = VENTURER 3. Obs.–1
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 123. Diseas’d ventures That play with all Infirmities for Gold, Which rottennesse can lend Nature.
† 9. One who or that which ventures out. Obs.–1
1702. in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 123. The cruisers … may pick up all ventures out without hazard.
10. Venture-girl, -miss, a girl or woman who goes to India in order to get a husband.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., iii. II. 287. It was a rule in the carnal bazar of Bengal for Venture-Misses to take the first man who proposed. Ibid. (1836), G. Gurney., III. 107. Mrs. Nubley was a venture girl from England.
