One takes it to be chancy (4)
I believe the answer is:
risk
'one' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'takes it to be chancy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'takes' could be 'is' (being is a kind of taking) and 'is' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for risk that I've seen before include "Assessment of potential dangers -- any silk saris (anag)" , "Gamble" , "Jeopardy" , "Possibility of bad outcome" , "dangerous thing" .)