[f. prec. sb., or a. F. chapitre-r, 15th c. in Littré.]
1. trans. To divide into chapters; to arrange in chapters. Hence Chaptering vbl. sb.
1485. Caxton, K. Arthur, ad fin. xxi bookes chapytred and emprynted & finisshed.
1509. Hawes, Examp. Virt., Prol. This boke … was … presented to our sayd souerayne lorde chapytred and marked after this table.
1603. Stow, Surv., 196/1. I had long since gathered notes to have chaptered.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 182. This general tradition of Langton’s chaptering the Bible.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 105. Where I stopped in the First Part. I have, in like manner, resumed the chaptering.
2. To reprove, take to task. [Cf. CHAPTER sb. 4 b, and F. chapitrer, ‘reprimander en plein chapitre; fig. et fam. adresser une reprimande.’]
1693. Dryden, Char. Polybius, C 2 b (T.). He more than once arraigns him for the inconstancy of his Judgment: and chapters even his own Aratus, on the same head.
1888. Daily News, 18 Oct., 5/1. He [the novice] kneels down with the others for the weekly ‘chapter of faults,’ and, after kissing the ground … he begins to pick holes in the characters of his Brethren.
3. To mark with Roman numerals.
