[a. F. châsse, in OF. chasce, chasse, shrine of relics, setting of gems, casing, case:—L. capsa ‘repository, box, case,’ f. cap-ĕre to take, receive. (It is doubtful whether sense 2 belongs here; cf. next, and L. capsus enclosure).]
1. The ‘setting’ of a gem.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, La Saillie & cabochon d’vne pierre preétieuse taillée en bosse, the chase wherein a precious stone is enclosed.
2. Printing. The quadrangular iron frame in which the composed type for a page or sheet is arranged in columns or pages, and ‘locked up’ by the quoins or wedges, so as to be placed in the press.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 78. A Printing Presse hath his seuerall parts … as the screw, the nut, the pear-tree, and the chase.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 492. 143. The Compositor … closeth them with chases, (lest they slip out).
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, II. 207. The form … properly arranged and confined by quoins or wedges within an iron frame, denominated a chase.
