meaning of chain

1. A series of links or rings, usually of metal, connected, or fitted into one another, used for various purposes, as of support, of restraint, of ornament, of the exertion and transmission of mechanical power, etc.
2. That which confines, fetters, or secures, as a chain; a bond; as, the chains of habit.
3. A series of things linked together; or a series of things connected and following each other in succession; as, a chain of mountains; a chain of events or ideas.
4. An instrument which consists of links and is used in measuring land.
5. Iron links bolted to the side of a vessel to bold the dead-eyes connected with the shrouds; also, the channels.
6. The warp threads of a web.
7. A pump consisting of an endless chain, running over a drum or wheel by which it is moved, and dipping below the water to be raised. The chain has at intervals disks or lifts which fit the tube through which the ascending part passes and carry the water to the point of discharge.
8. An ornamental stitch like the links of a chain; -- used in crocheting, sewing, and embroidery.
9. A stitch in which the looping of the thread or threads forms a chain on the under side of the work; the loop stitch, as distinguished from the lock stitch. See Stitch.
10. A chain pulley, or sprocket wheel.
11. An inversion of the chain pump, by which it becomes a motor driven by water.
12. To fasten, bind, or connect with a chain; to fasten or bind securely, as with a chain; as, to chain a bulldog.
13. To keep in slavery; to enslave.
14. To unite closely and strongly.
15. To measure with the chain.
16. To protect by drawing a chain across, as a harbor.
17. chain 1. system> From BASICs "CHAIN" statement To pass control to a child or successor without going through the operating system command interpreter that invoked you. The state of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it. Though this facility used to be common on memory-limited microcomputers and is still widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular, Unix calls this exec. Compare with the more modern "subshell". 2. A series of linked data areas within an operating system or application program. "Chain rattling" is the process of repeatedly running through the linked data areas searching for one which is of interest. The implication is that there are many links in the chain. 3. A possibly infinite, non-decreasing sequence of elements of some total ordering, S x0 <= x1 <= x2 . . . A chain satisfies: for all x,y in S, x <= y / y <= x. I. e. any two elements of a chain are related. "<=" is written in LaTeX as sqsubseteq. [Jargon File]
18. a series of usually metal rings or links fitted into one another to make a flexible ligament

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