chain

Etymology

From 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.

noun

1. 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.
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.
   "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. […]" 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter X, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 177
8. (mathematics, set theory, order theory) 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. 2003, Jeremy P. Spinrad, Efficient Graph Representations, American Mathematical Society, page 108
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
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. A livery collar, a chain of office.
13. (weaving) The warp threads of a web.

verb

1. (transitive) To fasten something with a chain.
   You should chain your bicycle to the railings to protect it from being stolen.
2. (figurative) To 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.
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. (figurative) 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. August 13, 2017, Brandon Nowalk, “Oldtown offers one last game-changing secret as Game Of Thrones goes behind enemy lines (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
7. (computing) To relate data items with a chain of pointers.
8. (computing) 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). January 15, 2016, Mark Papadakis, “Coroutines and Fibers. Why and When”, in Medium
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 very outset. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 99
10. (transitive, computing, rare, associated with Acorn Computers) 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? 1996, Mr D Walsh, “Running two programs from a batch file”, in comp.sys.acorn.misc (Usenet)
    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!) 1998, Juan Flynn, “BBC software transmitted on TV - how to load?”, in comp.sys.acorn.misc (Usenet)
    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. 2006, Richard Porter, “SpamStamp double headers”, in comp.sys.acorn.apps (Usenet)