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Webster 1913 Edition

Chapel

Chap′el

,
Noun.
[OF.
chapele
, F.
chapelle
, fr. LL.
capella
, orig., a short cloak, hood, or cowl; later, a reliquary, sacred vessel, chapel; dim. of
cappa
,
capa
, cloak, cape, cope; also, a covering for the head. The chapel where St. Martin’s cloak was preserved as a precious relic, itself came to be called
capella
, whence the name was applied to similar paces of worship, and the guardian of this cloak was called
capellanus
, or chaplain. See
Cap
, and cf.
Chaplain
.,
Chaplet
.]
1.
A subordinate place of worship
; as,
(a)
a small church, often a private foundation, as for a memorial
;
(b)
a small building attached to a church
;
(c)
a room or recess in a church, containing an altar.
☞ In Catholic churches, and also in cathedrals and abbey churches, chapels are usually annexed in the recesses on the sides of the aisles.
Gwilt.
2.
A place of worship not connected with a church;
as, the
chapel
of a palace, hospital, or prison
.
3.
In England, a place of worship used by dissenters from the Established Church; a meetinghouse.
4.
A choir of singers, or an orchestra, attached to the court of a prince or nobleman.
5.
(Print.)
(a)
A printing office, said to be so called because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.
(b)
An association of workmen in a printing office.
Chapel of ease
.
(a)
A chapel or dependent church built for the ease or a accommodation of an increasing parish, or for parishioners who live at a distance from the principal church.
(b)
A privy.
(Law)
–
Chapel master
,
a director of music in a chapel; the director of a court or orchestra.
–
To build a chapel
(Naut.)
,
to chapel a ship. See
Chapel
,
Verb.
T.
, 2.
–
To hold a chapel
,
to have a meeting of the men employed in a printing office, for the purpose of considering questions affecting their interests.

Chap′el

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To deposit or inter in a chapel; to enshrine.
[Obs.]
Beau. & Fl.
2.
(Naut.)
To cause (a ship taken aback in a light breeze) so to turn or make a circuit as to recover, without bracing the yards, the same tack on which she had been sailing.

Webster 1828 Edition

Chapel

CHAPEL

, n.
1.
A house for public worship; primarily, a private oratory, or house of worship belonging to a private person. In Great Britain there are several sorts of chapels; as parochial chapels, distinct from the mother church; chapels which adjoin to and are a part of the church; such were formerly built by honorable persons for burying places; chapels of ease, built in large parishes for the accommodation of the inhabitants; free chapels, which were founded by the kings of England; chapels in the universities, belonging to particular colleges; domestic chapels, built by noblemen or gentlemen for the use of their families.
2.
A printers workhouse; said to be so called because printing was first carried on in a chapel.

CHAPEL

,
Verb.
T.
To deposit in a chapel.

Definition 2024

chapel

chapel

English

Bothwell Chapel - McKendree College

Noun

chapel ‎(plural chapels)

  1. A place of worship, smaller than, or subordinate to a church.
  2. A place of worship in a civil institution such as an airport, prison etc.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”
  3. A funeral home, or a room in one for holding funeral services.
  4. A trade union branch in UK printing or journalism.
  5. A printing office, said to be so called because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.
  6. A choir of singers, or an orchestra, attached to the court of a prince or nobleman.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

chapel ‎(not comparable)

  1. (Wales) Describing a person who attends a nonconformist chapel.
    The village butcher is chapel.

Verb

chapel ‎(third-person singular simple present chapels, present participle chapelling, simple past and past participle chapelled)

  1. (nautical, transitive) To cause (a ship taken aback in a light breeze) to turn or make a circuit so as to recover, without bracing the yards, the same tack on which she had been sailing.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To deposit or inter in a chapel; to enshrine.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Beaumont and Fletcher to this entry?)

Anagrams

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *cappellus, diminutive of Late Latin cappa.

Noun

chapel m ‎(oblique plural chapeaus or chapeax or chapiaus or chapiax or chapels, nominative singular chapeaus or chapeax or chapiaus or chapiax or chapels, nominative plural chapel)

  1. hat (item of clothing used to cover the head)

Descendants

Welsh

Noun

chapel

  1. aspirate mutation of capel

Etymology

Borrowing from Old French chapele, from Late Latin cappella ‎(“little cloak; chapel”), diminutive of cappa ‎(“cloak, cape”).

  • ‘Martin was said to have torn his military cloak in half to clothe a poor man, who was later revealed to him as Christ himself. The cut down “little cloak”, cappella in Latin, later became one of the most prized possessions of the Frankish barbarian rulers who succeeded Roman governors in Gaul, and the series of small churches or temporary structures which sheltered this much-venerated relic were named after it: capellae.’ (Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 313)

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈtʃapəl/
  • Rhymes: -æpəl

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