[App. short for ENCHASE; French has enchâsser, but no châsser.]
1. trans. To adorn (metal, plate, etc.) with work embossed or engraved in relief; to engrave a surface. See also CHASED ppl. a.2
1438. [see CHASED ppl. a.2].
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Enchasser en or, to chace in gold.
1862. Athenæum, 30 Aug., 277. The great golden statues may have been cut up into rings, and chased by Woeiriot of Lorraine.
1879. H. Phillips, Addit. Notes Coins, 3. This medal appears to have been chased entirely by hand, and not to have been struck from a die.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 191. Sometimes a pole which has been lying by … is found to be curiously chased, as it were, all over the surface under the loose bark by creeping things.
1885. Manch. Courier, 30 May, 5/5. An improved calender for chasing, glazing, swizzing, and embossing [cloth].
2. To set with (gems, etc.).
1536–40. Pilgrim’s T., 330, in Thynne’s Animadv. (1865), App. i. 86. Most rychestly chast with margarites euery dell.
b. To ‘set’ (a gem, etc.) in. (See ENCHASE.) Also fig. rare.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1047. And close beneath, a meadow gemlike chased In the brown wild, and mowers mowing in it.
