chainwork

Noun

1. Techniques of looping or linking pieces of metal or another materials in the manner of a chain; objects made using these techniques.
   • and wreathes of chaine worke, for the chapiters which were vpon the top of the pillars: - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 7:17:
   • For one of the Bracelets made of Chain-work, we had as much Provision of several Sorts, as would fairly have been worth in England, Fifteen or Sixteen Pounds; - 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, page 37:
   • […] she assented coldly, without adding an unnecessary word, some trivial chain-work which she had in her hands enabling her to avoid looking at Lydgate higher than his chin. - 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, volume 2,...
2. A system in which each element is linked to two others in the manner of a chain; a series of interconnected things.
   • The coherence and interdependency in the total chainwork of evidence, and the independent strength of each particular link, is little known to the public. - 1840, Thomas De Quincey, “The Autobiography of an English...
   • […] the great object to be accomplished is to bring the immense chainwork of Northern railroads into closer communication with the Southern system, - 1866, Morton Peto, chapter 3, in Resources and Prospects of America,...
   • There are frightful energies beneath that adamantine surface—energies which have been confined by a rude, imperfectly organized system of force; a chain-work of abuses roughly welded together as occasion required. -...

   Synonyms: chain

3. The technique of surveying by measuring distances with a chain.
   • If all this agrees with the field book measurements, the chain work has been correctly done in the field and correctly plotted in the office. - 1886, W. Davis Haskoll, chapter 2, in Land and Marine Surveying, 2nd...
   • It seems incredible that chain work as here described should have played an important part in making national maps and plans. - 1964, T. W. Birch, chapter 4, in Maps Topographical and Statistical, 2nd edition, pages...
   • Once in Nicaragua, the young man soon began assisting Peary with “chain work” and other tasks relating to surveying. - 2009, Deirde C. Stam, “Introduction”, in Matthew A. Henson’s Historic Arctic Journey, page 22: