English

Alternative forms

• chapter-house
• chapterhouse

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.