chance upon

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

chance upon
    v 1: find unexpectedly; "the archeologists chanced upon an old
         tomb"; "she struck a goldmine"; "The hikers finally struck
         the main path to the lake" [syn: {fall upon}, {strike},
         {come upon}, {light upon}, {chance upon}, {come across},
         {chance on}, {happen upon}, {attain}, {discover}]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

21 Moby Thesaurus words for "chance upon":
      alight upon, blunder upon, bump into, come across, come on,
      come up against, come upon, discover serendipitously, encounter,
      fall in with, happen upon, hit upon, light upon, meet up with,
      meet with, run across, run into, run up against, stumble on,
      stumble upon, tumble on

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