chamber: Meaning and Definition of

cham•ber

Pronunciation: (chām'bur), [key]
— n.
  1. a room, usually private, in a house or apartment, esp. a bedroom: She retired to her chamber.
  2. a room in a palace or official residence.
  3. the meeting hall of a legislative or other assembly.
    1. a place where a judge hears matters not requiring action in open court.
    2. the private office of a judge.
    3. (in England) the quarters or rooms that lawyers use to consult with their clients, esp. in the Inns of Court.
  4. a legislative, judicial, or other like body: the upper or the lower chamber of a legislature.
  5. an organization of individuals or companies for a specified purpose.
  6. the place where the moneys due a government are received and kept; a treasury or chamberlain's office.
  7. (in early New England) any bedroom above the ground floor, generally named for the ground-floor room beneath it.
  8. a compartment or enclosed space; cavity: a chamber of the heart.
  9. (in a canal or the like) the space between any two gates of a lock.
  10. a receptacle for one or more cartridges in a firearm, or for a shell in a gun or other cannon.
  11. (in a gun) the part of the barrel that receives the charge.
  12. See
—adj.
  1. of, pertaining to, or performing chamber music: chamber players.
—v.t.
  1. to put or enclose in, or as in, a chamber.
  2. to provide with a chamber.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
See also: