Forms: (4 keigne), 4–6 cheyne, chayn(e, 5–7 chaine, 6– chain, (occas. 4 cheine, cheingne, 4–5 cheigne, 6 cheynne); north. and Sc. 4–5 chenye, 4–6 cheny, 4–7 chenyie, 5–6 chenȝei, 7 cheinȝie, 9 dial. chain-, chenzie; 4–5 and 9 dial. chyne, chine, 5 schene, 6 schyne, chene, cheane, chane. [ME. chayne, cheyne, a. OF. chaeine, chaaine, chaene, chaane, in ONF. caeine, caenne (= Pr. & Sp. cadena, It. catena):—L. catēna chain. With the ME. types in -gne, Sc. -nȥe, -nȥie, cf. mod.Picard cagne; mod. Sc. is cheen (tſīn).]
I. General sense.
1. A connected series of links (of metal or other material) passing through each other, or otherwise jointed together, so as to move on each other more or less freely, and thus form a strong but flexible ligament or string.
Chains differ in structure according to the shape of their links and the mode in which these are united; also in material and size, in accordance with their purpose of fastening, restraint, traction, ornament, etc. Hence such qualifying attributes as gold, iron, cable, draught, watch, etc.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 683. His men him brought, by a chayn … a ragged colt.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 174. Þe chyne in tuo he hew.
c. 1340. Cursor M., App. i. 22054 (Edin.). An angel … wiþ a mikil keigne [other MSS. cheigne, cheingne, cheny, cheyne] in hande.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 623. And with ane stark cheyne [v.r. chenyie, stark chenȝeis] hald thame thar.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 123. A spering cheyne with staples and hookes.
1483. Cath. Angl., 63. Chine, cathena.
1530–50. Gregory, Chron., 192. Made ij stronge schynys of yryn, unto the draught brygge of London.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods Staffs., in Ann. Lichfield, IV. 24. Itm. ij sensors of masten, on of them hath chanes of silver.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 135. Many chaines of iron to draw the artillery.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 1051. Hanging in a golden Chain This pendent World.
1680. Lond. Gaz., No. 1538/4. A Silver Watch … without String or Chain.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 504, ¶ 5. I am to be hang’d in chains.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 4972/4. Abraham Deseser,… Watch-chain-maker.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 126. No. 8 keys and unkeys the draught chain.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 50. When the timekeeper is going, the chain is drawn off the fusee on to the barrel.
Mod. Children making daisy chains.
b. as a substance. (No plural.)
16[?]. in Reliques Anc. Poetry (1823), III. 15. He put in chaine full nine yards long, And he let goe his great gunnes shott.
1637. MS. Abst., in Maclaurin, Crim. Cases, xl. (Jam.). He was sentenced to be hanged in chenyie on the gallowlee till his corpse rot.
2. As employed to restrain or fetter; hence a bond or fetter generally; esp. in pl. fetters, bonds; abstr. confinement, imprisonment, captivity.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 132. They bounden him with cheines faste.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxviii. 6. Hee [God] bringeth out those which are bound with chaines, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xxvii. 2. Mac to thee bondis and cheynus [Coverd. chaynes, 1612 yokes] and thou shalt putte them in thi necke.
1526. Tindale, Acts xii. 7. The cheynes fell of from his hondes.
1555. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xliv. 125. Jeremie … made a chain of wood … and [Hananiah] took the chain from his neck and brake it.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 48. To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire.
1712. Berkeley, Pass. Obed., Wks. III. 129. The natural dread of slavery, chains, and fetters.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 234. Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, iv. 40. Brought in chains to Rome.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 284. For either mot I haue yow in my cheyn Or with the dethe ye mot departe vs tweyn.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 57. Excepte the chaynes & bondes of synne be vtterly broken.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., II. 142. Dusky forms in chains of slumber cast.
1787. Burns, Streams that glide. Streams … Never bound by winter’s chains.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. iii. 62. The chain of habit.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 36. The first band of men who had shaken off their chains.
† c. A constraining force; a bond of union or sympathy; a tie. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 616. Þow shalt see in þi-selue treuthe sitte in þine herte, In a cheyne of charyte as þow a childe were.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4815. Love … is a sykenesse of the thought Annexed and kned bitwixe tweyne, With male and female, with oo cheyne.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 186/1. There is a Divine Chain, which maketh one of it self, and those things which are united to it.
3. A personal ornament in the form of a chain worn round the neck; sometimes an ensign of office (chain of office).
(The chain of a locket, a watch chain, and the like, combine senses 1 and 3.)
1397. Will, in Fairholt, Hist. Costume, Gloss. s.v., A chain of gold of the old manner, with the name of God in each part.
1429. Sc. Acts, in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), II. 77/2. Serpis, beltis, uches, and chenȝies.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 154. My mastyr sold to my lord off Norfolke a schene of gold.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. i. 9. That shal brynge grace vnto thy heade, and shal be a cheyne aboute thy necke.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 433. The new found Glasse Cheynes that you weare about your neckes.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 197. What fashion will you weare the Garland off? About your necke, like an Vsurers chaine?
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, Introd. 4. Physicians at Milan … wear Chains of Gold, as a Mark of Distinction.
Mod. The mayor was present wearing his chain of office.
4. fig. A connected course, train or series; a sequence: a. of action or condition.
[a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1866), II. 186. Draws sin upon sin, till there be a chain of many links.]
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. vii. 30. In the chain of Discourse, wheresoever it be interrupted, there is an End for that time.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. ii. § 31. Here no chain of succession could be pleaded, where no two links followed in order.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 109, ¶ 1. Without … Care to preserve the Appearance of Chain of Thought.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., Introd. 1. This false idea … reduced the vegetable chain to a small number of interrupted links.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 31. The simplest chain of reasoning.
1875. J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, i. 3. Link in a reproductive chain of being.
Mod. The chain of proof is complete.
b. of individual facts, acts, events, or the like.
1696. Whiston, The. Earth, II. (1722), 184. Purely Mathematical Propositions are demonstrated by a chain of deductions.
1719. Young, Revenge, IV. i. Day buries day; month, month; and year the year; Our life is but a chain of many deaths.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., i. § 11. A chain of proofs must have their commencement somewhere.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xx. 571. A strange chain of events.
1885. Sir R. Baggallay, in Law Times Rep., LII. 672/1. The Act provides for a complete chain of trustees.
5. A continuous linear series of material objects:
a. of objects purposely connected, or connecting points in a line.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L. (1793), 197. The Chain of triangles from the Edystone to … Plymouth, for ascertaining their distance trigonometrically.
1810. Henry, Elem. Chem. (1826), I. 168. Another modification of the apparatus, which may be called the Chain of Cups, was proposed by Volta.
1838. Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ., 464. By means of the chain of steamers now navigating the Rhine.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 132. The chain of nerve ganglia.
b. of objects naturally disposed in a linear series (with connection actual or imagined).
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. (1723), 172. The Andes, that prodigious Chain of Mountains.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. v. 458. The Ladrones … an extensive chain of Islands.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 411. The vibrations will pass … by the chain of bones, to the Membrana Fenestræ Ovalis.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol., 57. The most extensive mountain chains have a northern and southern direction.
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 87. South of the St. Lawrence and the great chain of lakes.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 218. A chain of undulating hills.
c. Short for mountain-chain (as in b).
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 277. A submarine chain extending from Boulogne to Folkestone.
1846. Grote, Greece (1862), II. i. 1. The chain called Olympus.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 152. A southerly continuation of the Humboldt chain.
d. Ladies’ chain [Fr. chaine des dames]: a part of the second figure in a quadrille.
1869. Eng. Mech., 3 Dec., 271/3. Performing with his partner a ‘ladies’ chain’ in their fantastic quadrille.
II. Specific uses.
6. A chain or similar construction used as a barrier to obstruct the passage of a bridge, street, river, the entrance into a harbor, etc.; a boom.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 569. For other wey is fro the gatis none, Of Dardanus, there opyn is the cheyne.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccccxxvi. 748. The chenesse of euery strete taken downe and brought into the palayes.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 19. Malpas of London drewe the cheynne of London brygge.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 223. There was a Chain of great Trees placed cross the Creek … we were afterwards near half an hour cutting the Boom or Chain.
1720. Burchett, Naval Trans. III. xix. 400. The Dutch … broke their way through, and burnt the three ships which lay to defend the Chain.
7. A chain fixed to a door-post, which serves to secure a house door within when slightly opened.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., liii. ‘Top bolt’ muttered Arthur, fastening as he spoke, ‘bottom bolt—chain—bar—double-lock—and key.’
1862. Thackeray, Philip, II. xix. Mary came down stairs, and opened the hall-door, keeping the chain fastened, and asked him what he wanted.
8. Part of a curb or bridle.
1617. Markham, Caval., II. 14. The Cavezan … in fashion of a Chaine, & in our English phrase commonly called the Chaine.
9. A measuring line, used in land-surveying, formed of one hundred iron rods called links jointed together by eyes at their ends.
At first chains of varying length were used or proposed; but that described by Gunter in 1624 is the one now adopted; it measures 66 feet or 4 poles, divided into 100 links.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, To Rdr. 1. The Beame and Chaine balke no Truthes, nor blaunch Vn-truthes.
1624. Gunter, Descr. Sector, &c. in Penny Cycl., VI. 462/2. We may measure the length and breadth by chains, each chain being four perches in length, and divided into 100 links.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. V. i. 3. The Chains now used and in most esteem among Surveyors are Three. The first I will name is Mr. Rathborn’s … and that of Mr. Gunter’s … this year Mr. Wing hath described a chain of 20 Links in a Perch.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 256. An accurate land surveyor, with his chain, sight, and theodolite.
1801. Hutton, Course Math. (1828), II. 54. Land is measured with a chain, called Gunter’s Chain … of 100 equal links; and the length of each link is therefore … 7·92 inches.
b. A chain’s length, as a lineal measure, equal to 66 feet, or 4 poles.
An area of ten chains in length by one in breadth, or 100,000 square links = an acre.
1661. S. Partridge, Doub. Scale Prop., 40. Let a piece of land be 36 poles broad, and the length 23 chains and an half.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Surveying, It contains 12 Chains, 5 Links.
1850. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (ed. 2), III. 333 (Hoppe). The London and North-Western … in its long and branching extent of 477 miles 351/4 chains.
10. Arch. A bar of iron, etc., built into walls to increase their cohesion; see also chain-bond, -timber in 19, CHAIN-PLATE 2.
1764. Watson, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 217. In edifices of this kind, for additional strength, the builders employ bars of iron, connected together in such a manner as their exigencies require; and these, though they have no links, are denominated chains.
1842. Gwilt, Archit. (1876), § 1495. There are other means [for uniting the voussoirs] … such as dowels and cramps … these are far better than the chains and ties of iron introduced by the moderns.
11. Mil. Short for CHAIN-SHOT.
1804. Monson, in Wellesley’s Disp., 544. A most tremendous discharge of round, grape, and chain, from their guns.
† 12. Short for CHAIN-PUMP. Obs.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1750/4. An Engine that delivers … more Water than the Chain, and with greater Ease.
13. Weaving. The longitudinal threads in a woven fabric; the warp. (So in F. and Ger. App. sometimes misused for woof; cf. Cotgr. ‘chaine de drap, the woofe of cloth; the thread which in weauing runs ouercrosse it.’)
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., II. 17. All worsted Chains, and only the Shute of Woollen-Yarns.
1774. Act 14 Geo. III., c. 25. Taking the Biers out of the Chains and withholding Part of the Woof or Abb Yarn delivered to them.
1810. J. T., in Risdon’s Surv. Devon, Introd. 25. The one [yarn] … forms the chain or woof.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 1110. The longitudinal threads, which are to form the chain of the web. Ibid., 1113. The European loom … [has] a warp-beam, round which the chain has been wound.
14. Naut. A contrivance used to carry the lower shrouds of a mast outside the ship’s side, and by thus widening the basis of support to increase the firmness of the mast.
a. The part that secures the shroud to the ship’s side, now commonly called CHAIN-PLATE.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 20. The Chaines are strong plates of iron fast bolted into the Ships side by the Chaine-waile.
1769. in Falconer, Dict. Marine, 80/2.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 105. Chain or chains, the links of iron which are connected to the bindings that surround the dead-eyes of the channels. They are secured to the ship’s side by a bolt through the toe-link, called the chain-bolt.
b. pl. The assemblage of chain-wale, chain-plates, dead-eyes, etc., which form the contrivance to extend the basis of the shrouds; usually qualified, as fore-, main-, mizen-chains, according to the mast. In the chains: standing upon the chain-wale between two shrouds (whence the leadsman heaves the hand-lead).
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xi. (1840), 193. To board her [a ship] … at her fore-chains on one side.
1825. H. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 52. In each Main-chains an able seaman stands, With well coil’d line and plummet in his hands.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xiii. 45. Climbed up the fore chains, and found the deck empty.
15. The connection in a galvanic battery.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 318. These phenomena, however, only take place the moment the Galvanic chain is shut, or when it is suffered to remain shut…. If the opposite action, occasioned at the moment the chain is separated, had entirely supplanted … the former.
16. The series of bubbles on the surface of the water marking the course of an otter.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life & Recoll., II. 317. I at once observed the ‘chain,’ or bubbles, of an otter.
III. Attrib. and Comb.
17. attrib. Of chains; chain-like; of the nature of chain-mail (cf. 19).
c. 1425. in Hampole’s Psalter, 1. This same sauter in all degre is the self in sothnes That lyȝt at hampole in surte … Þar it lyȝt in cheyn bondes.
1886. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, xv. 240. We managed to get off the chain shirts.
18. General combs., as chain-line, -maker, -making, -shop, -verse, -way; chain-drooped, -swung, adjs.
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xl. A *chain-droop’d lamp was flickering by each door.
1880. Athenæum, 10 Jan., 56. The position of the water-mark and the direction of the *chain-lines, which are uniformly the same in every sheet of laid paper.
1860. Offic. Report, in Merc. Mar. Mag., VII. 141. *Chain-makers, shipowners.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Aug., 11/1. The 2,500 chainmakers of both sexes who went out on strike on the 7th inst. Ibid. *Chainmaking is only possible by skilful hand-labour.
1887. Daily News, 18 June, 3/2. Mr. Matthews … said the wages in the chainmaking trade … were probably not more on the average than 7s. per week.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Aug., 11/2. Working for some hours in the *chain-shops.
1820. Keats, Ode Psyche, 33. No incense sweet From *chain-swung censer teeming.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., Postscr. 104. Ariosto … whose *chaine-verse, to which he fettereth himselfe.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2573/4. A plain Silver *Chain Watch.
19. Special combs.: chain-argument (Logic), a sorites; chain-armo(u)r = chain-mail; chain-belt, (a.) see quot.; (b.) a chain adapted as a belt for transmitting power; chain-boat (see quot.); chain-bolt, (a.) Naut. one of the bolts by which chain-plates are fastened to the ship’s side; (b.) the bolt or knob at the end of a door-chain (see 7); chain-bond (Arch.), a chain or tier of timber built in a brick-wall to increase its stability and cohesion (see 10); † chain-bridle, a bridle with a chain (see 8); † chain-bullet = CHAIN-SHOT; chain-coupling, a secondary coupling, consisting of chains and hooks, between railway carriages or trucks, which acts in case of any accident to the primary coupling; chain-gang, a gang or number of convicts chained together while at work, etc., to prevent escape; chain-guard, a mechanism in watches to prevent over-winding; chain-harrow, a barrow composed of chain-work; chain-hook, (a.) a hook fixed to a chain; (b.) Naut. ‘an iron rod with a handling-eye at one end, and a hook at the other, for hauling the chain-cables about’ (Smyth); † chain-lace, ? lace made with chain-stitch; chain-lightning, lightning that appears to form a long zig-zag or broken line; see also quot. 1885; chain-locker (Naut.), the receptacle for storing the chain-cable; chain-mail, mail or body-armor made of interlaced links or rings; chain-man, the bearer of the measuring chain in surveying; chain-mo(u)lding, an ornamental molding imitating chains; chain-pier, a promenade pier, supported by chains like a chain-bridge; chain-pin, an iron pin or ‘arrow’ used in marking distances in measuring with the chain; chain-pulley, a pulley having depressions in its periphery to fit the links of a chain with which it is worked; chain-rule, a rule of arithmetic, by which is found the relation of equivalence between two numbers for which a chain of intervening equivalents is given, as in Arbitration of Exchanges; chain-saw (Surg.), a vertebrated saw forming a chain, having hook and handle at either extremity; chain-sling (Naut.), a chain fitted to encircle a large article, for hoisting or lowering; chain-smith, a mechanic whose trade is to make chains; chain-snake, a species of lizard, allied to the Slow-worm; chain-syllogism = chain-argument; chain-timber = chain-bond; chain-towing, a system of towing vessels in rivers, etc., by means of a chain or cable lying along the bed of the river which is wound over a drum on board the vessel; chain-well = chain-locker; chain-wheel, (a.) a wheel used with a chain for the transmission of power; (b.) a machine for utilizing water-power, which is an inversion of the chain-pump, the descending water pressing upon the plates or buckets and so driving the machinery. Also CHAINBRIDGE, -CABLE, -PUMP, etc.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., 200. The German title [for Sorites] *chain-argument (Kettenschluss).
a. 1797. Walpoliana, xv. 9. The *chain, or ring armour was that used in the Middle Ages.
1851. H. Melville, Moby-Dick, xlv. 293. The dolphin was drawn in scales of chain-armor like Saladin’s.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 217. The *chain-belt is a contrivance to fix round the trunk, which it locks to the platform.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 164. *Chain-boat, a large boat fitted with a davit over its stem, and two windlasses, one forward, and the other aft, in the inside. It is used for getting up mooring-chains, anchors, &c.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 105. *Chain-bolt, a large bolt to secure the chains of the dead-eyes, for the purpose of securing the mast by the shrouds.
1880. Blackmore, Erema, I. xxii. 274 (Hoppe). He … politely put the chainbolt on the door when he retired to take advice.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss. s.v. Bond, The term *chain bond is sometimes applied to the bond timbers formerly placed in one or more tiers in the walls of each story of a building, and serving not only to tie the walls together during their settlement, but afterwards for nailing the finishings thereto.
1690. J. Mackenzie, Siege London-Derry, 2/2. Some of their Clergy also … procured several *Chain-bridles to be made.
1636. Heywood, Challenge Beautie, II. D b. My friend and I Like two *chaine-bullets, side by side, will fly Thorow the jawes of death.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., cccv. Chaine-Bulletts of his will Run through all Streets, and in the Waft, they kill.
1858. Gen. P. Thomson, Audi Alt., II. lxxx. 37. How nearly the felon and the *chain-gang are allied.
1882. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 49/1. Chain-gangs of convicts are brought out from the prison for this labor.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 50. [The] *Chain Hook … [is] the hook fixed at each end of the chain to attach it to the fusee and the barrel.
1578. Richmond. Wills (1853), 279. Vij own. of *chean lace, viijs. vjd.
1598. Florio, Cadenelle, little chaines, chaine-lace or chaine-stich.
1882. J. Parker, Apost. Life, I. 148. No man can report *chain lightning.
1885. Daily Tel., 28 Dec., 7/2. ‘Chain lightning’ [is] a strong foreign spirit.
1822. Scott, Nigel, iii. ‘It’s not made of iron, I wot, nor my claithes of *chenzie-mail.’
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, IV. 137. Clothed from head to foot in steel chain-mail.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 157. Accompanied by an assistant and a *chainman.
a. 1863. Thackeray, Wks. (1886), XVII. 363 (Hoppe). The man on the *chain-pier at Brighton, who pares out your likeness in sticking-plaster.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., X. 184. You may use the ordinary or *chain-saw.
1862. Med. Times, II. 264. Plate of T. Matthew’s chain-saw.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 402. Away went one of our *chain-slings, and she fell back.
1736. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 256. Anguis annulatus, the *Chain-Snake.
1870. Bowen, Logic, vii. 222. The complex abbreviated reasoning thus formed is called a *Chain-Syllogism, or Sorites.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 582. *Chain-timber, in brick building, a timber of large dimensions placed in the middle of the height of a story, for imparting strength.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 521/2. The *chain-towing system was first tried in France in 1732.
1845. Athenæum, 1 Feb., 118. The enormous chain and *chain-wheel for driving the screw.
