Chancellorship
(Chan"cel*lor*ship) n. The office of a chancellor; the time during which one is chancellor.
Chance-medley
(Chance"-med`ley) n. [Chance + medley.]
1. (Law) The killing of another in self-defense upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter. See
Chaud-Medley.
The term has been sometimes applied to any kind of homicide by misadventure, or to any accidental
killing of a person without premeditation or evil intent, but, in strictness, is applicable to such killing as
happens in defending one's self against assault. Bouvier.
2. Luck; chance; accident. Milton. Cowper.
Chancery
(Chan"cer*y) n. [F. chancellerie, LL. cancellaria, from L. cancellarius. See Chancellor, and
cf. Chancellery.]
1. In England, formerly, the highest court of judicature next to the Parliament, exercising jurisdiction at
law, but chiefly in equity; but under the jurisdiction act of 1873 it became the chancery division of the
High Court of Justice, and now exercises jurisdiction only in equity.
2. In the Unites States, a court of equity; equity; proceeding in equity.
A court of chancery, so far as it is a court of equity, in the English and American sense, may be generally,
if not precisely, described as one having jurisdiction in cases of rights, recognized and protected by the
municipal jurisprudence, where a plain, adequate, and complete remedy can not be had in the courts
of common law. In some of the American States, jurisdiction at law and in equity centers in the same
tribunal. The courts of the United States also have jurisdiction both at law and in equity, and in all such
cases they exercise their jurisdiction, as courts of law, or as courts of equity, as the subject of adjudication
may require. In others of the American States, the courts that administer equity are distinct tribunals,
having their appropriate judicial officers, and it is to the latter that the appellation courts of chancery is
usually applied; but, in American law, the terms equity and court of equity are more frequently employed
than the corresponding terms chancery and court of chancery. Burrill.
Inns of chancery. See under Inn. — To get (or to hold) In chancery (Boxing), to get the head
of an antagonist under one's arm, so that one can pommel it with the other fist at will; hence, to have
wholly in One's power. The allusion is to the condition of a person involved in the chancery court, where
he was helpless, while the lawyers lived upon his estate.
Chancre
(Chan"cre) n. [F. chancere. See Cancer.] (Med.) A venereal sore or ulcer; specifically, the
initial lesion of true syphilis, whether forming a distinct ulcer or not; — called also hard chancre, indurated
chancre, and Hunterian chancre.
Soft chancre. A chancroid. See Chancroid.
Chancroid
(Chan"croid) n. [Chancre + -oil.] (Med.) A venereal sore, resembling a chancre in its seat
and some external characters, but differing from it in being the starting point of a purely local process
and never of a systemic disease; — called also soft chancre.
Chancrous
(Chan"crous) a. [Cf. F. chancreux.] (Med.) Of the nature of a chancre; having chancre.
Chandelier
(Chan`de*lier") n. [F. See Chandler.]
1. A candlestick, lamp, stand, gas fixture, or the like, having several branches; esp., one hanging from
the ceiling.
2. (Fort.) A movable parapet, serving to support fascines to cover pioneers. [Obs.]
