Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHASM, n. [s. as z. Gr. χασμα, L. chasma, from Gr. χαω, χασκω, χαινω, to open.]

1. A cleft; a fissure; a gap; properly, an opening made by disrupture, as a breach in the earth or a rock.
2. A void space; a vacuity. Between the two propositions, that the gospel is true, and that it is false, what a fearful chasm! The unsettled reason hovers over it in dismay. – Buckminster.