venture

Clipping of adventure.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: ven‧ture

venture (plural ventures)

1. A risky or daring undertaking or journey.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 4, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 30:

     My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in the cold night upon this dangerous venture.

   • 1979, Johanna Menzel Meskill, A Chinese Pioneer Family‎^[1], Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 191:

     Other jobs which the governor entrusted to Ch'ao-tung dealt with the economic exploitation of the newly won mountain areas. In the Miao-li region, Ch'ao-tung headed an office for developing the petroleum resources discovered there.³⁸ Without much success during his tenure, the venture was later turned over to private entrepreneurs.

2. An event that is not, or cannot be, foreseen.

   Synonyms: accident, chance, contingency

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 22:34:

     A certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness.

3. The thing risked; especially, something sent to sea in trade.

   Synonym: stake

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.

• business venture
• joint venture

venture (third-person singular simple present ventures, present participle venturing, simple past and past participle ventured)

1. (transitive) To undertake a risky or daring journey.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden Jun., transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     who freights a ship to venture on the seas

   • 1949, Joseph Campbell, “The Hero and the God”, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

     A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: […]

2. (transitive) To risk or offer.

   to venture funds

   to venture a guess

   Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it.

   • 1922, James Joyce, chapter 13, in Ulysses:

     Till then they had only exchanged glances of the most casual but now under the brim of her new hat she ventured a look at him and the face that met her gaze there in the twilight, wan and strangely drawn, seemed to her the saddest she had ever seen.

   • 1939 November, “What the Railways are Doing: Penda's Way—A Station built in a Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 364:

     [...] Mrs. Bray [...] expressed amazement at the speed with which the station was completed, and ventured the opinion that private contractors could still learn something from the railway companies.

3. (intransitive, with at or on) To dare to engage in; to attempt without any certainty of success.
4. (transitive) To put or send on a venture or chance.

   to venture a horse to the West Indies

5. (transitive) To confide in; to rely on; to trust.
   • 1711, Joseph Addison, “No. 21, Saturday, March 24, 1710-11”, in The Spectator‎^[2]:

     A man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one whom he would not venture to feel his pulse.

6. (transitive) To say something; to offer an opinion.
   • 2000 January 28, Oliver Burkeman, quoting Heston Blumenthal, “Things that make you go yum”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     “Unctuous is probably quite a good description, but there's a sweetness, too, and a mouthfeel,” ventures Heston Blumenthal, chef at the Fat Duck at Bray.

• venture capital

• venturesome
• venturous

• “venture”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “venture”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): /venˈtu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: ven‧tù‧re

venture

1. feminine plural of venturo

venture f

1. plural of ventura

ventūre

1. vocative masculine singular of ventūrus