1. Naut. [see CHAIN sb. 14.] One of the strong links or plates of iron fastened to the ship’s side under the chainwale, to which the shrouds are secured.
1692. in Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., I. XIV. 64. Main Chains and Chain Plaits.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cadenes de haubans, the chains of the shrouds, the chain-plates.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxix. 106. We were loaded down to the bolts of our chain-plates.
2. Arch. One of a series of connected plates built into the walls of a building to give it greater stability; cf. CHAIN sb. 10.
1842. Gwilt, Archit. (1876), § 1882. The best remedy against this inconvenience [settlement of the foundation] is to tie the walls together by the means of chain plates.
