chapter

views updated Jun 27 2018

chap·ter / ˈchaptər/ • n. 1. a main division of a book, typically with a number or title. ∎ fig. a period of time or an episode in a person's life, a nation's history, etc.: a tragic chapter in history.2. a local branch of a society.3. the governing body of a religious community, esp. a cathedral or a knightly order.4. a series or sequence: the latest episode in a chapter of problems.PHRASES: chapter and verse an exact reference or authority.

chapter

views updated Jun 11 2018

chapter2 the main division of a book.
chapter and verse an exact reference or authority; originally, the exact reference to a passage of Scripture (the usage is recorded from the early 17th century). Chapter and verse divisions to the scriptures are of comparatively late date; Jewish scholars of the 6th to 10th centuries ad (Masoretes) divided books into verses, and the New Testament was divided into chapters by Stephen Langton (c.1150–1228). Verses appeared in the Greek and Latin editions of the New Testament produced in Geneva in 1551, and then in the English Geneva Bible of 1560.
chapter of accidents a series of unfortunate events; the term is recorded from the late 18th century.

chapter

views updated May 23 2018

chapter1 the governing body of a religious community, especially a cathedral, or a knightly order. The term is recorded from Middle English, and comes via Old French from Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput ‘head’.
chapter house a building used for the meetings of the canons of a cathedral or other religious community.

chapter

views updated Jun 08 2018

chapter main section of a book XIII; assembly of a religious community or collegiate church (orig. with ref. to the reading of a chapter of Scripture or of the Rule) XIV; members of this XV. — (O)F. chapitre, earlier chapitle — L. capitulum, dim. of caput HEAD.

Chapter

views updated May 23 2018

Chapter

the body or community of an organized branch of a society or church, monastic or religious order, or of any order of knights; a unit that is a sequential part of a series; used figuratively.

Examples: chapter of accidents, 1773; of canons, 1305; of friars, 1679; of knights, 1842; of the Noble Order of the Garter, 1681; of noble virgins; of possibilities, 1769.

Chapter

views updated May 29 2018

Chapter. The members of a Christian religious community or of any similar body. From the 9th cent. cathedrals often had separate ‘chapter houses’.

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