/ˈt͡ʃeɪn/
OriginFrom Middle English cheyne, chaine, from Old French chaine, chaene (“chain”), from Latin catēna (“chain”), from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to braid, twist; hut, shed”). Doublet of catena. Displaced native Middle English rakil and rakent (from Old English racente (“chain”)); see rackan.
- A series of interconnected rings or links usually made of metal.
“He wore a gold chain around the neck.”
“The anchor is connected to the boat with a 100-metre long chain.”
- A series of interconnected things.
“a chain of mountains”
“a chain of ideas, one leading to the next”
“This led to an unfortunate chain of events.”
- A series of stores or businesses with the same brand name.
“That chain of restaurants is expanding into our town.”
- physicalA number of atoms in a series, which combine to form a molecule.
“side chain”
“When examined, the molecular chain included oxygen and hydrogen.”
- A series of interconnected links of known length, used as a measuring device.
- A long measuring tape.
- A unit of length, exactly equal to 22 yards, which is 4 rods or 100 links, and approximately equal to 20.12 metres; the length of a Gunter's surveying chain; the length of a cricket pitch.
“"But it's too far—must be a quarter of a mile—and I've a portmanteau to carry." […]
"Garn!" shouted the guard. "Taint ten chain. […]"”
- A totally ordered set, especially a totally ordered subset of a poset.
“We first find an approximation of the chain partition, i.e. a small but not minimum size set of chains which cover all elements of the poset.”
- A formal sum of cells in a CW complex of a certain dimension k (in which case the formal sums are called k'''-chains); a formal sum of simplices or cubes of a certain dimension in a simplical complex or cubical complex (respectively).
- broadlyAn element of a group (or module) in a chain complex.
- BritishA sequence of linked house purchases, each of which is dependent on the preceding and succeeding purchase (said to be "broken" if a buyer or seller pulls out).
- That which confines, fetters, or secures; a bond.
“the chains of habit”
“Driven down / To chains of darkness and the undying worm.”
- in-pluralIron links bolted to the side of a vessel to bold the dead-eyes connected with the shrouds; also, the channels.
- A livery collar, a chain of office.
“And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords
And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat,
Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue
For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.”
- The warp threads of a web.
- transitiveTo fasten something with a chain.
“You should chain your bicycle to the railings to protect it from being stolen.”
- figurativelyTo connect as if with a chain, due to dependence, addiction, or other feelings
“Sometimes I feel like I'm chained to this computer.”
“She's been chained to her principles since she was 18, it's unlikely you can convince her otherwise.”
- intransitiveTo link multiple items together.
- transitiveTo secure someone with fetters.
- transitiveTo obstruct the mouth of a river etc with a chain.
- figurativelyTo obligate.
“I miss when Game Of Thrones was wide open, but even then, the writers were chained to a narrative they didn’t yet know the ending of and feared straying too far from.”
- To relate data items with a chain of pointers.
- To be chained to another data item.
“You don’t need to maintain state, or partition execution into different objects that then you can chain together (one executes the other on completion — chained continuations).”
- transitiveTo measure a distance using a 66-foot long chain, as in land surveying.
“As the line was surveyed - a sufficient length being first chained by a surveyor, who was followed by axemen - trees had to be felled and a certain width maintained, which was specified in the contrac”
- rare, transitiveTo load and automatically run (a program).
“How do you get one program to chain another? I want to run DrawWorks2 then !Draw but as soon as you run Drawworks2 it finishes the batch file and doesn't go on to the next instruction! Is there a way ”
“You can do LOAD "" or CHAIN "" to load or chain the next program if I remember correctly (it's been a loooong time since I've used a tape on an Acorn!)”
“Recent versions of AntiSpam no longer use the Config file but have a Settings file instead, so when I updated the Config file to chain SpamStamp it had no effect as it was a redundant file.”
Formschains(plural) · chains(present, singular, third-person) · chaining(participle, present) · chained(participle, past) · chained(past) · Chains(plural)