Meaning
Introduces an event that came about purely by chance, usually with a hint that fortune, kindly or otherwise, arranged the outcome. The original 'good' has faded in the shortened everyday form 'as luck would have it', which now introduces unlucky turns just as readily as lucky ones, often with dry or ironic understatement. Conversational and slightly literary at once. Neutral-to-conversational register, frequently with a dry or ironic shading now that the phrase covers bad luck as easily as good. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Falstaff uses the phrase in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 3 Scene 5, recounting his narrow escape: 'As good luck would have it, comes in one Mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's approach', before describing how the women hid him in a buck-basket. The Phrase Finder treats this as the first recorded use of the expression, finding no earlier printed example, and notes it is now usually shortened to 'as luck would have it'. It passed into ordinary English as a standard signal that chance governs an outcome; because the 'good' dropped away, the modern form swings both ways, introducing fortunate and unfortunate developments alike.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- as chance would have it
- as ill luck would have it
- as luck would have it
Usage Examples
- As good luck would have it, the flight I missed was delayed by five hours anyway.
- As luck would have it, the one bakery still open had a tray of his favourite rolls cooling on the rack.
- We had just missed the last ferry, but as luck would have it a fisherman offered to run us across the strait.