Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHAF'FY, a.

Like chaff; full of chaff; light; as, chaffy straws; chaffy opinions. – Brown. Glanville.

CHAF'ING, n.

State of being rubbed by friction.

CHAF'ING, ppr.

Heating or fretting by friction.

CHAF'ING-DISH, n. [chafe and dish.]

A dish or vessel to hold coals for heating any thing set on it; a portable grate for coals.

CHA-GRIN', n. [Fr. This word applied to a particular kind of skin, or leather, is said to be derived from a Turkish word, sagri, Fr. croupe. The skin is dressed so as to present on its surface little eminences. See Shagreen.]

Ill humor; vexation; peevishness; fretfulness. – Pope.

CHA-GRIN', v.t. [Fr. chagriner.]

To excite ill humor in; to vex; to mortify.

CHA-GRIN'ED, pp.

Vexed; fretted; displeased.

CHAIN, n. [Fr. chaîne, for chaisne; Norm. cadene, and cheyne; Arm. chaden, cadenn, or jadenn; Sp. cadena; Port. cadea; It. catena; L. catena; D. keten; G. kette; Sw. kädia; Dan. kede; W. cadwen; Qu. Ar. اكَادٌ from أكَدَ akada, to bind or make fast.]

1. A series of links or rings connected, or fitted into one another, usually made of some kind of metal, as a chain of gold, or of iron; but the word is not restricted to any particular kind of material. It is used often for an ornament about the person.
2. That which binds; a real chain; that which restrains, confines, or fetters; a bond. If God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them into chains of darkness. – 2 Peter ii.
3. Bondage; affliction. He hath made my chain heavy. – Lam. iii.
4. Bondage; slavery. In despotism the people sleep soundly in their chains. – Ames.
5. Ornament. – Prov. i. 9.
6. A series of things linked together; a series of things connected or following in succession; as, a chain of causes, of ideas, or events; a chain of being.
7. A range, or line of things connected; as, a chain of mountains.
8. A series of links, forming an instrument to measure land.
9. A string of twisted wire, or something similar, to hang a watch on, and for other purposes.
10. In France, a measure of wood for fuel, and various commodities, of various length.
11. In ship building, chains are strong links or plates of iron, bolted at the lower end to the ship's side, used to contain the blocks called dead eyes, by which the shrouds of the mast are extended.
12. The warp in weaving, as in French.
13. Chain, in surveying land, is in length four rods or perches, or sixty-six feet. It consists of one hundred links, each link seven inches, 92/100. Chain-pump. This consists of a long chain, equipped with a sufficient number of valves, moving on two wheels, one above, the other below, rising downward through a wooden tube and returning through another. It is managed by a long winch, on which several men may be employed at once. – Encyc. Chain-shot, two balls or half balls connected by a chain, and used to cut down masts, or cut away shrouds and rigging. Chain-wales of a ship, broad and thick planks projecting from a ship's side, abreast of and behind the masts, for the purpose of extending the shrouds, for better supporting the masts, and preventing the shrouds from damaging the gunwale. – Encyc. Chain-work, work consisting of threads, cords and the like, linked together in the form of a chain; as, lineal chaining or tambour work, reticulation or net work, &c. – Ed. Encyc. Top-chain, on board a ship, a chain to sling the sail-yards in time of battle, to prevent their falling, when the ropes that support them are shot away. – Encyc.

CHAIN, v.t.

1. To fasten, bind, or connect with a chain; to fasten or bind with any thing in the manner of a chain.
2. To enslave; to keep in slavery. And which more blest? Who chain'd his country, say, / Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day? – Pope.
3. To guard with a chain, as a harbor or passage.
4. To unite; to form chain-work.

CHAIN'ED, pp.

Made fast, or bound by a chain; connected by a chain; bound; enslaved.

CHAIN'ING, ppr.

Binding, fastening, or connecting with a chain; binding, or attaching to; enslaving.

CHAIN'LESS, a.

Having no chains.

CHAIR, n. [Fr. chaire, a pulpit, contracted from Norm. cadiere, as chain from catena; Arm. cadarn, or cador; Ir. cathaoir; L. cathedra; Gr. καθεδρα, connected with καθεζομαι, to sit, κατα and ἑζομαι; W. cadair, a seat or stool.]

1. A movable seat; a frame with a bottom made of different materials, used for persons to sit in; originally a stool, and anciently a kind of pulpit in churches.
2. A seat of justice or of authority; as, a chair of state.
3. A seat for a professor, or his office; as, the professor's chair.
4. The seat for a speaker or presiding officer of a public council or assembly, as the speaker's chair; and by a metonymy the speaker himself; as, to address the chair.
5. A sedan; a vehicle on poles borne by men.
6. A pulpit. – Burnet.
7. A two wheeled carriage, drawn by one horse; a gig.
8. Supreme office or magistracy. When Governor Shute came to the chair, several of the old councilors were laid aside. – Belknap.
9. The iron blocks which support and secure the rails in a rail-way. Curule chair, an ivory seat placed on a car, used by the prime magistrates of Rome.

CHAIR'MAN, n.

1. The presiding officer or speaker of an assembly, association or company, particularly of a legislative house; also, the president or senior member of a committee.
2. One whose business is to carry a chair. – Dryden.

CHAIR'MAN-SHIP, n.

The office of a chairman or presiding officer of a meeting. – Parriana.

CHAISE, n. [s as z. Fr. chaise, a seat or chair. Qu. It. seggia.]

A two wheeled carriage drawn by one horse; a gig. It is open or covered.

CHA-LAZ'A, n.

In botany, a small brown spot upon the testa of a seed, formed by the union of certain vessels proceeding from the hilum; a part of a seed, springing from an expansion of the raphe, where it communicates with the base of the nucleus. – Lindley.

CHAL-CE-DON'IC, a.

Pertaining to chalcedony.

CHAL-CED'O-NY, n. [from Chalcedon, a town in Asia Minor, opposite to Byzantium, now Constantinople. Pliny informs us that Chalcedon signifies the town of blind men. The last syllable then is the Celtic dun, English town, a fact that the historian should not overlook. Plin. lib. 5. 32.]

A subspecies of quartz, a mineral called also white agate, resembling milk diluted with water, and more or less clouded or opake, with veins, circles and spots. It is used in jewelry. – Cleaveland. Nicholson. Encyc. The varieties of chalcedony are common chalcedony, heliotrope, chrysoprase, plasma, onyx, sard, and sardonyx. – Ure.

CHAL-CED'O-NYX, n.

A variety of agate, in which white and gray layers alternate. – Cleaveland.

CHAL'CITE, n. [Gr. χαλκος, brass.]

Sulphate of iron or a red color, so far calcined as to have lost a considerable part of its acid. – Fourcroy.

CHAL-COG'RA-PHER, or CHAL-COG'RA-PHIST, n. [Infra.]

An engraver in brass.

CHAL-COG'RA-PHY, n. [Gr. χαλκος, brass, and γραφω, to write.]

The act or art of engraving in brass.

CHAL-DA'IC, a.

Pertaining to Chaldea, anciently a country on the Frat or Euphrates, in Asia, called in Scripture, Shinar. Of this, Babylon was the principal city.

CHAL-DA'IC, n.

The language or dialect of the Chaldeans.