Definition of "chapter"

(authorship) One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.  quotations

1. A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • CHAPTER - One of the principal divisions of a book, and, in reference to the Bible, one of the larger sections into which its books are divided. This division, as well as that consisting of verses, was introduced to facilitate reference, and not to indicate any natural or accurate division of the subjects treated in the books.

     1842, Walter Farquahar Hook, A Church Dictionary, published 1896

   • At least thirty-two of the first forty-seven decretal chapters were received by English ecclesiastics,

     1963, Charles Duggan, Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History, page 127

   • il conclut: « No pope, no collection but the masters who served the one and commented on the other ultimately determined the content of this decretal chapter».

     1983, Revue théologique de Louvain - Volume 14, page 127

   • But unlike a similar annotation, it has not been turned into a chapter title because the annotation “de quodam hermita” (Of a certain hermit) immediately preceded it. If a scribe had also turned Liberauit Dominus hermitam into a chapter title, he would have created a chapter that consisted of a single sentence, which even for a rather dull scribe would seem unacceptable. […] While scribe A wrote the body of the text of the De nugis curialium, scribe X contributed the rubricated chapter headings.

     2017, Joshua Byron Smith, Walter Map and the Matter of Britain, page 67

   • While rubrics do not appear in paper manuscripts, eight paper manuscripts contain chapter titles, which serve the same function as the medieval rubrics.

     2018, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Emily Lethbridge, New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga, page xvii

   • Characteristics: parchment; 92 fols.; 260 × 180 mm.; 32 lines; Italy; ca. 1430; two hands: humanistic rotunda with some Gothic features; marginal notes by first hand and names by a second hand; space left for initials; rubric inscriptions; superscript variants by first hand; chapters marked in margin; horizontal catchwords; quaternions.

     2018, David J. Hunt, A Textual History of Cicero's Academici Libri, page 152

   • From canon law, he cited Gratian's Decretum, Gregory's Decretales, the Sexto and Clementines Decretales, and the Extravagantes, and specifically referred to “the rules for understanding the Law” in a decretal chapter on Propterea.

     2021, David T. Orique, The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias, page 97

Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)

1. An assembly of monks, prebendaries and/or other clergymen connected with a cathedral, conventual or collegiate church, or of a diocese, usually presided over by the dean.  examples

2. A community of canons or canonesses.  examples

3. A bishop's council.  examples

A section of a social body.

1. An administrative division of an organization, usually local to a specific area.  examples

2. An organized branch of some society or fraternity, such as the Freemasons.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • If the By-Law which admits honorary members is silent upon their rights, they may perhaps be determined by a consideration of which of these classes was intended by the Chapter in admitting them

     1862, The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine

A meeting of certain organized societies or orders.  examples

A chapter house  examples

A sequence (of events), especially when presumed related and likely to continue.  quotations  examples

(obsolete) A location or compartment.  quotations

(Roman Catholicism) A prescribed reading at one of the canonical hours.  examples

To divide into chapters.  examples

To put into a chapter.  examples

(military, with "out") To use administrative procedure to remove someone.  quotations

(transitive) To take to task.  examples