chain

From Middle English cheyne, 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”). Doublet of catena.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃeɪn/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -eɪn

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 mountains

   a chain of ideas, one leading to the next

   This 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. (chemistry) 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, 4 rods, or 100 links.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter X, p. 177,

     "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. […] "

8. (mathematics, set theory, order theory) A totally ordered set, especially a totally ordered subset of a poset.
   • 2003, Jeremy P. Spinrad, Efficient Graph Representations, American Mathematical Society, page 108,

     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.

9. (Britain) 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

    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

      Driven 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.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

• (series of interconnected rings or links): rackle
• (series of interconnected things): See also Thesaurus:sequence

chain (third-person singular simple present chains, present participle chaining, simple past and past participle chained)

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. (figuratively) To obligate.
   • 2017 August 13, Brandon Nowalk, “Oldtown offers one last game-changing secret as Game Of Thrones goes behind enemy lines (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     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.

6. (computing) To relate data items with a chain of pointers.
7. (computing) To be chained to another data item.
8. (transitive) To measure a distance using a 66-foot long chain, as in land surveying.
9. (transitive, computing, rare, associated with Acorn Computers) 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.

• unchain
• chain up

• chain in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• chain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• OED 2nd edition 1989

• chain on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• Anich, Chian, China, china

• IPA^(key): /χai̯n/

chain

1. Aspirate mutation of cain.