Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Chase?

\Chase\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Chased}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Chasing}.] [OF. chacier, F. chasser, fr. (assumed) LL. captiare, fr. L. captare to strive to seize. See {Catch}.] 1. To pursue for the purpose of killing or taking, as an enemy, or game; to hunt. We are those which chased you from the field. --Shak. Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and place. --Cowper. 2. To follow as if to catch; to pursue; to compel to move on; to drive by following; to cause to fly; -- often with away or off; as, to chase the hens away. Chased by their brother's endless malice from prince to prince and from place to place. --Knolles. 3. To pursue eagerly, as hunters pursue game. Chasing each other merrily. --Tennyson.
\Chase\, v. i. To give chase; to hunt; as, to chase around after a doctor. [Colloq.]
\Chase\, n. [Cf. F. chasse, fr. chasser. See {Chase}, v.] 1. Vehement pursuit for the purpose of killing or capturing, as of an enemy, or game; an earnest seeking after any object greatly desired; the act or habit of hunting; a hunt. ``This mad chase of fame.'' --Dryden. You see this chase is hotly followed. --Shak. 2. That which is pursued or hunted. Nay, Warwick, seek thee out some other chase, For I myself must hunt this deer to death. --Shak. 3. An open hunting ground to which game resorts, and which is private properly, thus differing from a forest, which is not private property, and from a park, which is inclosed. Sometimes written chace. [Eng.] 4. (Court Tennis) A division of the floor of a gallery, marked by a figure or otherwise; the spot where a ball falls, and between which and the dedans the adversary must drive his ball in order to gain a point. {Chase gun} (Naut.), a cannon placed at the bow or stern of an armed vessel, and used when pursuing an enemy, or in defending the vessel when pursued. {Chase port} (Naut.), a porthole from which a chase gun is fired. {Stern chase} (Naut.), a chase in which the pursuing vessel follows directly in the wake of the vessel pursued.
\Chase\, n. [F. ch['a]se, fr. L. capsa box, case. See {Case} a box.] (Print.) 1. A rectangular iron frame in which pages or columns of type are imposed. 2. (Mil.) The part of a cannon from the re["e]nforce or the trunnions to the swell of the muzzle. See {Cannon}. 3. A groove, or channel, as in the face of a wall; a trench, as for the reception of drain tile. 4. (Shipbuilding) A kind of joint by which an overlap joint is changed to a flush joint, by means of a gradually deepening rabbet, as at the ends of clinker-built boats.
\Chase\, v. t. [A contraction of enchase.] 1. To ornament (a surface of metal) by embossing, cutting away parts, and the like. 2. To cut, so as to make a screw thread.