chamber
see also: Chamber
Etymology
Chamber
Proper noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
see also: Chamber
Etymology
From Middle English chambre, borrowed from Old French chambre, from Latin camera, from Ancient Greek καμάρα.
Pronunciation Nounchamber (plural chambers)
- A room or set of rooms, particularly:
- The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble.
- 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review[S%3Aen%3AThe+American+Review%3A+A+Whig+Journal+of+Politics%2C+Literature%2C+Art%2C+and+Science%2FVolume+01%2FFebruary+1845%2FThe+Raven], volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC ↗, page 143 ↗:
- Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
- A bedroom.
- The private office of a judge.
- The room used for deliberation by a legislature.
- (UK) A single law office in a building housing several.
- (dated, usually, in the plural) Rooms in a lodging house.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Which Had Very Nearly Been the Last of the Story”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC ↗, page 120 ↗:
- A committee of marriageable ladies, or of any Christian persons interested in the propagation of the domestic virtues, should employ a Cruikshank or a Leech, or some other kindly expositor of the follies of the day, to make a series of designs representing the horrors of a bachelor's life in chambers, and leading the beholder to think of better things, and a more wholesome condition.
- The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble.
- (obsolete) Ellipsis of chamber pot a container used for urination and defecation in one's chambers.
- 1946, Elizabeth Metzger Howard, Before the Sun Goes Down, page 31:
- "Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."
- (figuratively) The legislature or division of the legislature itself.
- The resolution, which speedily passed the Senate, was unable to gain a majority in the lower chamber.
- Any enclosed space occupying or similar to a room.
- A canal lock chamber; a furnace chamber; a test chamber
- (biology) An enlarged space in an underground tunnel of a burrowing animal.
- (firearms) The area holding the ammunition round at the initiation of its discharge.
- Dianne loaded a cartridge into the chamber of the rifle, then prepared to take aim at the target.
- (firearms) One of the bullet-holding compartments in the cylinder of a revolver.
- (historical) A short piece of ordnance or cannon which stood on its breech without any carriage, formerly used chiefly for celebrations and theatrical cannonades.
- One of the two atria or two ventricles of the heart.
- (chamber pot) See Thesaurus:chamber pot
- Russian: ко́мната
- French: chambre, pièce
- German: Raum, Schlafzimmer, Zimmer, Kammer, (archaic) Gemach, (archaic) Schlafgemach
- Italian: camera, camera da letto
- Portuguese: câmara, quarto
- Russian: ко́мната
- Spanish: cámara
- Russian: ко́мната
- French: chambre
- German: (of the European Union) Plenarsaal, Kammer
- Italian: camera
- Portuguese: câmara
- Russian: пала́та
- Spanish: cámara
- French: chambre
- German: Kammer
- Portuguese: câmara
- Russian: патро́нник
- Spanish: recámara
- Russian: патро́нник
chamber (chambers, present participle chambering; simple past and past participle chambered)
- (transitive) To enclose in a room.
- She had chambered herself in her room, and wouldn't come out.
- To reside in or occupy a chamber or chambers.
- 1893, Publications of the Scottish History Society, volume 14, page 64:
- I chambered with Alexander Preston.
- (transitive) To place in a chamber, as a round of ammunition.
- The hunter fired at the geese and missed, then shrugged his shoulders and chambered another cartridge.
- (transitive) To create or modify a gun to be a specific caliber.
- The rifle was originally chambered for 9mm, but had since been modified for a larger, wildcat caliber.
- (martial arts, transitive) To prepare an offensive, defensive, or counteroffensive action by drawing a limb or weapon to a position where it may be charged with kinetic energy.
- Bob chambered his fist for a blow, but Sheila struck first.
- (obsolete) To be lascivious.
- (to be lascivious) blissom, lust; see also Thesaurus:harlotize
Chamber
Proper noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
