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Chain

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chain¹

  • /ˈt͡ʃeɪn/

Rhymes with -eɪn

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *katesnā

Latin catēna

Old French chaeinebor.

Middle English cheyne

English chain

From Middle English cheyne, chaine, from Old French chaeine, 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.

noun chains

  1. A series of interconnected rings or links usually made of metal. He wore a gold chain around the neck.
  2. An accessory, adornment or insignia comprising, containing or depicting a series of links. wallet chain
  3. 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.
  4. figuratively That which confines, fetters, or secures; a bond. the chains of habit
  5. plural, usually A snow chain. He put chains on my tires.
  6. A bicycle chain. My bike needs a chain.
  7. A pair of sticks connected by a ten yard chain, used to measure a down in American football.
  8. A watchchain. His watch's chain was gold-plated.
  9. A keychain. Get the key off my chain.
  10. slang A necklace of chain jewelry, usually gold. They knocked him out and snatched his chain.
  11. A door chain. I couldn't open the door because it was on its chain.
  12. A series of interconnected links of known length, used as a measuring device.
  13. A long measuring tape.
  14. 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. […]"
  15. in plural Iron links bolted to the side of a vessel to bold the dead-eyes connected with the shrouds; also, the channels.
  16. figuratively A lightning bolt. I saw a brilliant chain of lightning across the sky.
  17. A series of interconnected things. a chain of mountains
  18. An unbroken streak. We have to maintain chain of custody.
  19. A series of stores or businesses with the same brand name; a series of such stores as opposed to a small, independent shop. That chain of restaurants is expanding into our town.
  20. A chain of command. Send it up the chain, so head office will have to deal with it.
  21. figuratively The sequence of processes and transactions that result in a product or commodity being available. cold chain, kill chain, supply chain, value chain
  22. The warp threads of a web.
  23. UK 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).
  24. A blockchain.
  25. A kinetic chain.
  26. physical A number of atoms in a series, which combine to form a molecule. side chain
  27. 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.
  28. 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).
  29. broadly An element of a group (or module) in a chain complex.

verb chains · chaining · chained

  1. transitive To fasten something with a chain. You should chain your bicycle to the railings to protect it from being stolen.
  2. figuratively To connect as if with a chain, due to dependence, addiction, or other feelings Sometimes I feel like I'm chained to this computer.
  3. intransitive To link multiple items together.
  4. transitive To secure someone with fetters.
  5. transitive To obstruct the mouth of a river etc with a chain.
  6. figuratively To 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.
  7. To relate data items with a chain of pointers.
  8. 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).
  9. transitive To 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 contract, for drays had to follow, and the trees might have fallen upon the line and broken it down at the
  10. rare, transitive To 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 without loading one of these automatic loaders?

Chain²

proper noun Chains

  1. A surname.

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