[f. prec. sb.: cf. F. chambrer in some of the same senses.]
1. trans. To place in, or as in, a chamber; to shut up, confine, enclose. arch.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 195. To make the vermine flee downe into the lowest parts & there to chamber or angle themselves.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 149. The best blood chamber’d in his bosome.
1601. W. Parry, Trav. Sir A. Sherley (1863), 16. Their women are … closely chambred up.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., IV. v. Wks. 1873, III. 186. Call downe my Neece out of The melancholy mist she’s chambred in.
1818. Milman, Samor, 346.
1868. Bushnell, Serm. Living Subj., 91. Chambered … in his sleep under the open sky.
† 2. fig. To restrain, keep within bounds (one’s tongue, words, etc.). Obs.
138[?]. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 124. Crist chaumbred his wordis and tauȝte men to flee boost.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 10 a. Critias … thretened hym, that onelesse he chambred his tongue [etc.].
1644. Prynne & Walker, Fiennes’ Trial, 12. To chamber up or restraine Iustice intra Privatos Parietes.
17[?]. Will Stewart, xlv. in Child, Ballads, IV. 425/2. Chamber thy words now, I bidd thee.
3. To form into a chamber or into chambers.
1674. Durant, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 223. A spacious Cavity, chambered with Walls and Pillars of decident lapidescent Waters.
1866. Argyll, Reign Law, ii. (ed. 4), 102. A structure … hollowed and chambered on the plan which engineers have so lately discovered.
4. To provide (a gun) with a chamber.
1708. Kersey, To Chamber a Gun is to make a chamber in her.
1879. [see CHAMBER sb. 10 c.].
1885. Capt. Noble, in Pall Mall Gaz., 13 April, 2/2. You must either ‘chamber’ or refrain from firing such large charges.
b. To furnish with a concavity, to hollow underneath. Cf. CHAMBERED 3.
† 5. intr. To lodge in, or as in, a chamber. Obs.
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, I. i. Wks. 1874, III. 11. You shall no more … chamber vnderneath the spreading Okes.
¶ 6. ‘To be wanton, indulge in lewdness’ (J.).
1607. Niccols, Cuckow, in H. Headley, Sel. Anc. Eng. Poet., (1787), I. 9 (T.).
| Their chambering fortitude they did descrie | |
| By their soft maiden voice and flickering eie. |
1826. Scott, Woodst., iii. What—chambering and wantoning in our very presence! (Cf. also CHAMBERING vbl. sb. 2.)
