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Definition 2024


chapter_house

chapter house

See also: chapterhouse and chapter-house

English

Alternative forms

Noun

chapter house (plural chapter houses)

  1. A building attached to a cathedral, church, or monastery and used as a meeting place.
    • 1724, Daniel Defoe, "Journey from London to the Land's End":
      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.
    • 1906, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Nigel, ch. 2:
      In the center lay the broad Abbey buildings, with church and cloisters, hospitium, chapter-house and frater-house, all buzzing with a busy life.
  2. A building used by a sorority or fraternity as a residence or meeting place.
    • 1929 Sep. 23, "New Plays in Manhattan," Time:
      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.

Synonyms

  • (building used by a sorority or fraternity): Greek house

Translations

References

  • chapter house at OneLook Dictionary Search
  • Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.