What is "chapel"

Chapel \Chap"el\, v. t.

1. To deposit or inter in a chapel; to enshrine. [Obs.]
   --Beau. & Fl.

2. (Naut.) To cause (a ship taken aback in a light breeze) so to turn or make a circuit as to recover, without bracing the yards, the same tack on which she had been sailing.

Chapel \Chap"el\, n. [OF. chapele, F. chapelle, fr. LL. capella, orig., a short cloak, hood, or cowl; later, a reliquary, sacred vessel, chapel; dim. of cappa, capa, cloak, cape, cope; also, a covering for the head. The chapel where St. Martin's cloak was preserved as a precious relic, itself came to be called capella, whence the name was applied to similar paces of worship, and the guardian of this cloak was called capellanus, or chaplain. See Cap, and cf. Chaplain., Chaplet.]

1. A subordinate place of worship; as,

   1. a small church, often a private foundation, as for a memorial;

   2. a small building attached to a church;

   3. a room or recess in a church, containing an altar.

      Note: In Catholic churches, and also in cathedrals and abbey churches, chapels are usually annexed in the recesses on the sides of the aisles.
      --Gwilt.

2. A place of worship not connected with a church; as, the chapel of a palace, hospital, or prison.

3. In England, a place of worship used by dissenters from the Established Church; a meetinghouse.

4. A choir of singers, or an orchestra, attached to the court of a prince or nobleman.

5. (Print.)

   1. A printing office, said to be so called because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.

   2. An association of workmen in a printing office. Chapel of ease.

      1. A chapel or dependent church built for the ease or a accommodation of an increasing parish, or for parishioners who live at a distance from the principal church.

      2. A privy. (Law)

         Chapel master, a director of music in a chapel; the director of a court or orchestra.

         To build a chapel (Naut.), to chapel a ship. See Chapel, v. t., 2.

         To hold a chapel, to have a meeting of the men employed in a printing office, for the purpose of considering questions affecting their interests.

early 13c., from Old French chapele (12c., Modern French chapelle), from Medieval Latin cappella "chapel, sanctuary for relics," literally "little cape," diminutive of Late Latin cappa "cape" (see cap (n.)); by tradition, originally in reference to the sanctuary in France in which the miraculous cape of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, was preserved; meaning extended in most European languages to "any sanctuary." (While serving Rome as a soldier deployed in Gaul, Martin cut his military coat in half to share it with a ragged beggar. That night, Martin dreamed Christ wearing the half-cloak; the half Martin kept was the relic.)

1. (context in Wales English) Describing a person who attends a nonconformist chapel. n. 1 A place of worship, smaller than, or subordinate to a church. 2 A place of worship in a civil institution such as an airport, prison etc. v

2. 1 (context nautical transitive English) To cause (a ship taken aback in a light breeze) to turn or make a circuit so as to recover, without bracing the yards, the same tack on which she had been sailing. 2 (context obsolete transitive English) To deposit or inter in a chapel; to enshrine.

1. n. a place of worship that has its own altar

2. a service conducted in a chapel; "he was late for chapel" [syn: chapel service]

A chapel is a religious place of fellowship, prayer and worship that is attached to a larger, often nonreligious institution or that is considered an extension of a primary religious institution. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a college, hospital, palace, prison, funeral home, church, synagogue or mosque, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building, sometimes with its own grounds. Many military installations have chapels for the use of military personnel, normally under the leadership of a military chaplain.

Until the Protestant Reformation, a chapel denoted a place of worship that was either at a secondary location that was not the main responsibility of the local parish priest, or that belonged to a person or institution. The earliest Christian places of worship are now often referred to as chapels, as they were not dedicated buildings but rather a dedicated chamber within a building. Most larger churches had one or more secondary altars, which if they occupied a distinct space, would often be called a chapel. Although chapels frequently refer to Christian places of worship, they are also commonly found in Jewish synagogues and do not necessarily connote a specific denomination. In England, where the Church of England is established by law, nondenominational or inter-faith chapels in such institutions may nonetheless be consecrated by the local Anglican bishop.

In Russian Orthodox tradition, the chapels were built underneath city gates, where most people could visit them. The most famous example is the Iberian Chapel.

Non-denominational chapels are commonly encountered as part of a non-religious institution such as a hospital, airport, university, prison or military installation.

A chapel is a private church or area of worship.

Chapel may also refer to:

Chapel, the Cascade High Productivity Language, is a parallel programming language developed by Cray. It is being developed as part of the Cray Cascade project, a participant in DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program, which had the goal of increasing supercomputer productivity by the year 2010. It is being developed as an open source project, under version 2 of the Apache license.

Chapel is a fictional character and supervillain comic book character appearing in books published by his creator, Rob Liefeld. Liefeld created the character in 1992 as member of the government superhero group Youngblood, which started in their series of the same name.

In music, chapel refers to a group of musicians.