chapter house

plural chapter houses · alternative chapter-house · alternative chapterhouse

1. A building attached to a cathedral, church, or monastery and used as a meeting place.

   In the center lay the broad Abbey buildings, with church and cloisters, hospitium, chapter-house and frater-house, all buzzing with a busy life.

   1906, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 2, in Sir Nigel

   1 more example

   The cloister, and the chapter-house adjoining to the church, are the finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is octagon, or eight-square, and is 150 feet in its circumference.

   1724, Daniel Defoe, Journey from London to the Land's End

2. A building used by a sorority or fraternity as a residence or meeting place.

   At the house-party herein represented a murder is done, and the locale of the deed is a chapter house on the pleasant campus at Williamston, Mass.

   1929 September 23, “New Plays in Manhattan”, in Time

   Synonyms: Greek house