1. Ornamental work, in sculpture, etc., resembling chains.
1551. Bible, 1 Kings vii. 17. And whopes of chayne-worcke for the heed peces. Ibid. (1611). Wreathes of chaine worke, for the chapiters.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, ii. (1840), 35. One of the bracelets made of chain-work.
1815. Moore, Lalla R. (1862), 29. But a light, golden chain-work round her hair.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., II. iii. § 31. The … archivolts enriched with studded chainwork.
2. Work consisting of metal rings or links intertwined so as to form a net-work.
1860. Times, 5 July, 12/1 (L.). A mass of chainwork protruding 11 inches from the sides of the vessel it is intended to protect.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., vii. 107. The body armour is a shirt … formed of interwoven rings, or chain-work.
1886. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, xv. 240. We examined the armour…. It was the most beautiful chain work we had ever seen.
3. A texture formed by knitting or looping with a single thread, as in the manufacture of hosiery.
1833. Brewster, Nat. Magic, xi. 289. The inventor’s own account of the machinery in the article CHAIN-WORK in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 813. Hosiery … is composed of a single thread united or looped together in a peculiar manner, which is called stocking-stitch, and sometimes chain-work.
