| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| chamber |
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| SYLLABICATION: | cham·ber |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  ch m b r |
| NOUN: | 1. A room in a house, especially a bedroom. 2. A room where a person of authority, rank, or importance receives visitors. 3. chambers A room in which a judge may consult privately with attorneys or hear cases not taken into court. 4. chambers Chiefly British A suite of rooms, especially one used by lawyers. 5. A hall for the meetings of a legislative or other assembly. 6. A legislative or judicial body. 7. A board or council. 8. A place where municipal or state funds are received and held; a treasury. 9a. An enclosed space or compartment: the chamber of a pump; a compression chamber. b. An enclosed space in the body of an organism; a cavity: the four chambers of the heart. 10a. A compartment in a firearm, as in the breech of a rifle or the cylinder of a revolver, that holds the cartridge in readiness for firing. b. An enclosed space in the bore of a gun that holds the charge. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: cham·bered, cham·ber·ing, cham·bers
1. To put in or as if in a chamber; enclose or confine. 2. To furnish with a chamber. 3. To design or manufacture (a firearm) to hold a specific type of cartridge. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English chaumbre, from Old French chambre, from Late Latin camera, chamber, from Latin, vault, from Greek kamar.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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