• Chain

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈt͡ʃeɪn/
    • Rhymes: -eɪn

    Origin

    From Middle English chaine, from Old French chaine, chaene ("chain"; Modern French: chaîne), from Latin catēna ("chain"), from Proto-Indo-European *kat- ("to braid, twist; hut, shed"). Cognate with North Frisian ketten ("chain"), Dutch keten ("chain"), Low German Kede ("chain"), German Kette ("chain"), Danish kæde ("chain"), Swedish kedja ("chain"), Icelandic keðja ("chain").

    Full definition of chain

    Noun

    chain

    (plural chains)
    1. A series of interconnected rings or links usually made of metal.He wore a gold chain around the neck.
    2. A series of interconnected things.a chain of mountainsa chain of ideas, one leading to the nextThis led to an unfortunate chain of events.
    3. A series of stores or businesses with the same brand name.That chain of restaurants is expanding into our town.
    4. A number of atoms in a series, which combine to form a molecule.When examined, the molecular chain included oxygen and hydrogen.
    5. (surveying) A series of interconnected links of known length, used as a measuring device.
    6. (surveying) A long measuring tape.
    7. A unit of length equal to 22 yards. The length of a Gunter's surveying chain. The length of a cricket pitch. Equal to 20.12 metres. Equal to 4 rods. Equal to 100 links.
    8. (mathematics, order theory) A totally ordered set, especially a totally ordered subset of a poset.
    9. (British) A 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).
    10. That which confines, fetters, or secures; a bond.the chains of habit
      • MiltonDriven down
        To chains of darkness and the undying worm.
    11. (nautical, in the plural) Iron links bolted to the side of a vessel to bold the dead-eyes connected with the shrouds; also, the channels.
    12. (weaving) The warp threads of a web.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To fasten something with a chain.
    2. (intransitive) To link multiple items together.
    3. (transitive) To secure someone with fetters.
    4. (transitive) To obstruct the mouth of a river etc with a chain.
    5. (computing) To relate data items with a chain of pointers.
    6. (computing) To be chained to another data item.
    7. (transitive) To measure a distance using a 66-foot long chain, as in land surveying.
    8. (transitive, computing, rare) To load and automatically run (a program).
      • 1996, "Mr D Walsh", Running two programs from a batch file (on newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.misc)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 without loading one of these automatic loaders?
      • 1998, "Juan Flynn", BBC software transmitted on TV - how to load? (on newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.misc)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!)
      • 2006, "Richard Porter", SpamStamp double headers (on newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.apps)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.

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