chainwork

plural chainworks · alternative chain work · alternative chain-work

1. countableuncountableTechniques of looping or linking pieces of metal or another materials in the manner of a chain; objects made using these techniques.

   The bag was made of gold chain-work; there were more than four thousand lire in it.

   1930, Aldous Huxley, “The Rest Cure”, in Brief Candles, page 114

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   and wreathes of chaine worke, for the chapiters which were vpon the top of the pillars:

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 7:17

   For one of the Bracelets made of Chain-work, we had as much Provision of several Sorts, as would fairly have been worth in England, Fifteen or Sixteen Pounds;

   1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, page 37

   […] she assented coldly, without adding an unnecessary word, some trivial chain-work which she had in her hands enabling her to avoid looking at Lydgate higher than his chin.

   1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, volume 2, page 43

   […] she had a chain-work of coins encircling her hair, and falling completely round her face to her bosom,

   1880, Fred Belton, chapter 11, in Random Recollections of an Old Actor, page 211

2. countabledatedA system in which each element is linked to two others in the manner of a chain; a series of interconnected things.

   A chainwork of suggestions followed. Everybody had an idea, and the ideas became more and more involved […]

   1968, Peter Menegas, chapter 11, in The Jacklove Affair, page 143

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   The coherence and interdependency in the total chainwork of evidence, and the independent strength of each particular link, is little known to the public.

   1840, Thomas De Quincey, “The Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume 7, page 767

   […] the great object to be accomplished is to bring the immense chainwork of Northern railroads into closer communication with the Southern system,

   1866, Morton Peto, chapter 3, in Resources and Prospects of America, page 289

   There are frightful energies beneath that adamantine surface—energies which have been confined by a rude, imperfectly organized system of force; a chain-work of abuses roughly welded together as occasion required.

   1904, Mary Platt Parmele, chapter 26, in A Short History of Russia, page 243

   Synonyms: chain

3. dateduncountablegeographyThe technique of surveying by measuring distances with a chain.

   Once in Nicaragua, the young man soon began assisting Peary with “chain work” and other tasks relating to surveying.

   2009, Deirde C. Stam, “Introduction”, in Matthew A. Henson’s Historic Arctic Journey, page 22

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   If all this agrees with the field book measurements, the chain work has been correctly done in the field and correctly plotted in the office.

   1886, W. Davis Haskoll, chapter 2, in Land and Marine Surveying, 2nd edition, page 30

   It seems incredible that chain work as here described should have played an important part in making national maps and plans.

   1964, T. W. Birch, chapter 4, in Maps Topographical and Statistical, 2nd edition, pages 30-31