Also 5 chaas, chasshe, chas, 6 Sc. chaise, chess. [ME. chace, a. OF. chace (= Pr. cassa, Sp. caza, Pg. caça, It. caccia):—Romanic type *captia, f. stem of *captiare: see CHASE v.]
1. The action of chasing or pursuing with intent to catch; pursuit; hunting.
1297. R. Glouc., 6. Mest plente of fysch … And mest chase … of wylde bestes.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 199. Liouns chas … and beore baityng.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 373. Then might nought make sute and chace, Where that the game is nought provable.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxx. (1495), 793. Yf a hart fynde dowble wayes … that it be harder for the houndes to fynde and to folowe his chaas by odour and smell.
1566. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 392–3. The Lord Seytoun … brak a chaise upoun Alexander Quhitelaw.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. V., Wks. (1711), 107. The chace and following of hereticks is more necessary than that of infidels.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 307. Three bulls and a cow, which they killed after a long and tedious chace.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (1852), 57. The Carranchas … will unite in chace of large birds.
1879. B. Taylor, Stud. Germ. Lit., 101. The Silesians made a deliberate chase after elegant and original words. See STEEPLECHASE, WILD GOOSE CHASE.
b. The chase: the occupation or pastime of hunting wild animals for profit or (more usually) sport; ‘hunting.’
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 94. Þat neuer on Friday to wod þou go to chace.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E j a. Beestys of venery, or of chace.
1606. 2nd Pt. Returne fr. Pernass., II. v. (Arb.), 31. Your speciall beasts for chase, or as we huntsmen call it, for venery.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 1. The Chace, I sing, Hounds, and their various Breed.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), I. IV. 268. An Asiatic, who depends for subsistence on the chace.
1790. Cowper, Iliad, X. 424. As two fleet hounds, sharp fang’d, trained to the chace.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., ix. 201. Passionately devoted to the chace.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 91. Ardently fond of the chase.
1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., II. xi. 391. Like hunted beasts of the chace.
c. Pursuit of an enemy; rout. Obs. (exc. as in a.).
c. 1325. Coer de L., 6801. There were a thousand prysoners and mo. The chace lested swythe longe.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 27. Þe toþer were affraied, Þat þei went to þer schippes, so hard he sette his chace.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1274. Þemperours men manly made þe chace, & slowen doun bi eche side.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xli. 79. In the Chace mony there War takyn.
1483. Cath. Angl., 59. A chase, fuga.
1513–75. Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 37. Thair was not many slane at this chess.
1571. H. Marleborrough, in Hanmer’s Chron. Irel. (1633), 207. The chase or discomfiture of Ophaly.
1790. Burns, Batt. Sheriff-muir, iv. The chase gaed frae the north, man.
1809. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., IV. 565. I have been on the pursuit, or rather chace of Soult out of Portugal.
d. In Naval warfare: The pursuit of a ship.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 2–3. Wee gaue chase to a Turkish Pirat, after halfe a dayes chase, we gaue him ouer.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. I. 18. With a Man of War in Chase. Ibid., 19. We have a stearn-Chase, but we shall be up with her presently.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v., A Stern Chase is when the Chaser follows the Chased a-stern, directly upon the same Point of the Compass.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), M, The admiral displayed the signal for a general chace.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxx. This will be a long chase; a stern chase always is.
e. Phrases: In chase is said both of the chaser and of the chased, as to be in chase (of), have in chase, hold in chase. To give chase (to): to pursue. † Fair chase, a fair field; † free chase, free scope, † ‘full fling.’
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 3250. Thai ne war fayn of that fair chace.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1346. Where he list, Foly hath fre chace.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (1884), 143.
| Howbeit still all is ace, | |
| And there still a fayer chace. |
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 102. When a hart is in his chase, he is greatly pained in his bowels.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. vi. 19. Spies of the Volces Held me in chace.
1632. Sanderson, 12 Serm., 496. When we have anything in chase.
1634. [see prec. sense].
1649. Milton, Eikon., Wks. 1738, I. 419. What suttle and unpeaceable designs he then had in chace.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Brigantine, is a small light Vessel … and is either for Fighting or giving Chase.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 324. Two of the frigates gave us chase.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 60. It … gives chase to small birds on the wing.
1823. Byron, Island, III. x. And now the two canoes in chase divide … To baffle the pursuit.
a. 1842. Macaulay, Armada. The tall Pinto till the noon had held her close in chase.
2. The right of hunting over a tract of country; also, that of keeping beasts of the chase therein.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 146. Thrughe alle sees and sandys I gyf the the *chace.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 38. A man may have a chase in another man’s ground as well as his own.
1818. Cruise, Digest, III. 253. A chace is a franchise or liberty of keeping certain kinds of wild animals within a particular and known district.
3. A hunting-ground, a tract of unenclosed land reserved for breeding and hunting wild animals; unenclosed park-land.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 362. Have ye nat perkus and chas? What schuld ye do a this place.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xiv. 53. Thenne shalle alle the hunters flee awaye fro the chasshe.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., c. 5. A chase … for nourishyng, generacion and feeding of beastes of venery.
1542. Brinklow, Compl., iv. (1874), 16. The inclosing of parkys, forestys, and chasys.
1598. Manwood, Lawes Forest, i. (1615), 24. In these three things, a Forest doth differ from a Chase, that is to say, in particular Lawes, in particular Officers, and in certaine Courts.
1679–88. Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (1851), 144. Edward Sawyer, keeper of Cranburn Chace, in Windsor Forest.
1798. Malthus, Popul., II. vi. (1806), I. 432. A part of these domains consisted of parks and chaces.
1830. J. G. Strutt, Sylva Brit., 28. It is almost the only forest in England in the hands of a subject; by whom, in strict language, only a chase is tenable.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. 543. Their wide enclosed parks, and unenclosed chaces.
fig. 1849. De Quincey, Eng. Mail Coach, Wks. IV. 343. That ancient watery park, that pathless chase of ocean.
4. The object of pursuit; the hunted animal.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 208. Fast after the chace he spedde.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, iii. 7. And kill at force, hart, hind … and euery chace.
1677. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., Hunting (1706), 15. When Hounds … find some Game or Chase, we say They Challenge.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peake, 6.
| Through such a low and narrow pass, that it | |
| For Badgers, Wolves, and Foxes seems more fit; | |
| Or for the yet less sorts of Chaces, then | |
| T’admit the Statures, and the Bulks of men. |
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 178. The frighted Chase leaves her late dear Abodes.
1822. Byron, Werner, I. i. 62. I have been full oft The chase of Fortune.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 March, 4/1. The intrepid little chase lay dead and mangled.
b. Naut. The ship chased.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xii. 56. The shortest way to fetch vp your chase is the best.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxix. It was almost dark when we came up with the sternmost chace.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Chace, a vessel pursued by some other.
1883. G. W. Cable, in Century Mag., XXV. 864/2. The chase opened fire on the Carolina, and the gun-vessels in turn upon the chase.
5. Those who hunt, ‘the hunt.’
1811. W. Spencer, Poems, 80. And all the chace rode on.
6. The chase-guns of a ship (cf. BOW-CHASE, -CHASERS); the part of the ship where the chase-ports are. Stern chase: the chase-guns in the stern.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 184. The vice-admirall … began with her chace to salute her with three or foure peeces of artillery, and so continued chasing her and gunning at her. Ibid., 190. Doubtlesse it is most proper for shippes to have short ordinance, except in the sterne or chase.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xii. 55. Her Bow and chase so Gally-like contriued, should beare as many Ordnances as … she could. Ibid., xiii. 60. To giue her also your full chase, your weather broadside.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2251/4. Whilst our Stern Chace so galled the rest a Stern.
1748. Anson, Voy., III. viii. 501. The galeon returned the fire with two of her stern-chace.
1795. Lond. Gaz., 3 Feb. Firing at each other their bow and stern chases.
7. Tennis. Applied to the second impact on the floor (or in a gallery) of a ball that the opponent has failed or declined to return; the value of which is determined by the nearness of the spot of impact to the end wall. If the opponent, on sides being changed (see quot. 1653), can ‘better’ this stroke (i.e., cause his ball to rebound nearer the wall) he wins and scores it; if not, it is scored by the first player; until it is so decided, the ‘chase’ is a stroke in abeyance.
Since the distance of the place of impact from the wall is the point of value, the common explanation in Dictionaries is ‘The place where the ball completes its first bound.’
[= F. chasse, It. caccia, Sp. caza, MDu. caetse, from ONF. cache, Du. kaats. Thence Du. kaatsspel i.e., ‘chase-play,’ tennis, whence Sc. CACHESPEL, and caich, cach, CATCH sb. 5. The original meaning appeares to be ‘drive,’ viz. the driving of the ball to such a point.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 68. Chace of tenys play, or oþyr lyke, sistencia, obstaculum, obiculum.
1522. Skelton, Why come ye, 880. Marke me that chace In the Tennys play.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 403/2. Tindall is a great marker, there is nothing with him now but mark, mark, mark. It is pitie that the man wer not made a marker of chases in some tenis play.
1541. Sir T. Wyatt, Defence, 263/3. As a man should judge a chace against him at the tennis, wherewith he were not all the best contented.
1591. Florio, Sec. Frutes, 25. Boye, marke that chace. B. It is marked, and it is a great one [= bad one]. Ibid. I have two chaces. T. The last was not a chace, but a losse. H. Why is it a losse? T. Because you stroke it at the second rebound.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 266 (1623), 72/2. All the Courts of France will be disturb’d With Chaces.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. lviii. After the two chases are made, he that was in the upper end of the tennis court goeth out, and the other cometh in.
1696. Phillips, Chace … also in the game of Tenis, the fall of the Ball in such a certain part of the Court, beyond which the opposite Party must strike the Ball next time to gain that stroke.
1820. Hoyle’s Games Impr., 357. Marking the chaces.
8. dial. Haste, hurry.
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Chass, ‘Tak your awn time ower ’t, there’s nae chass about it.’
9. attrib. and Comb., as chase-fight (cf. 1 d); chase-gun, ‘such guns as are removed to the chase-ports ahead or astern, if not pivot-guns’ (Adm. Smyth); chase-halter, a large halter with a long rein used for breaking colts; chase-piece = chase-gun; chase-ports (see quot. 1850); chase-sight, ‘where the sight is usually placed’ (Adm. Smyth).
1708. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), VI. 280. A *chase fight to the northward till 7 at night.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., lxxxii. Raking *chase-guns through our sterns they send.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Chase guns, are such whose Ports are either in the Head (and then they are used in chasing of others) or in the Stern, which are only useful when they are pursued or chased by any Ship or Ships.
1748. Anson, Voy., III. viii. (ed. 2), 501. He gave orders to fire upon them with the chace-guns.
1607. Markham, Caval., I. (1617), 75. Tye him downe to the manger, and take off his *chase halter. Ibid., II. iii. 29. Hauing … got a chase halter made of strong Hempe, with the reine aboue three fadome long at the least.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 130. A watering snaffle, and then ouer it a strong soft chasse halter.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiii. 60. Giue him a *chase peece with your broad side.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Duckup, When a shot is to be made by a chase Piece. Ibid., s.v. Bulk heads, The Bulk-head afore … in which are the *Chase Port.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 106. Chase-ports, the ports at the bows, or through the stern of the ship. The former … are called bow-chasers.
