# daisy chain
## English
### Etymology

* PIE word
* *dagaz
The noun is derived from daisy +‎ chain. The verb is derived from the noun.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdeɪzi t͡ʃeɪn/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈdeɪzi ˌt͡ʃeɪn/
* Audio (General American):(file)

### Noun

daisy chain (plural daisy chains)
* A garland to be worn on the head, made (usually as a pastime) by sewing or otherwise linking the stems of the flowers of daisies (Bellis perennis) into a ring.
* (by extension) A thing resembling a daisy chain (sense 1) in having several elements connected together, often in a circle.
** 1856, [Charlotte Mary Yonge], chapter XXV, in The Daisy Chain; or, Aspirations. A Family Chronicle. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, part II, page 641:And, for her father, it seemed as if it were a home-like, comfortable thought to him, that her mother had one of her children with her. He called her [his deceased daughter] the first link of his Daisy Chain drawn up out of sight; […]
** (backpacking) A small strip of webbing with multiple loops, which allows a backpacker to secure several objects to the exterior of a backpack.
** (business) A group of dealers who buy and sell a commodity (originally crude oil, especially in a single shipment) among themselves in order to artificially increase its price before it is sold to a party outside the group.
** (climbing)
*** A ladder consisting of loops of nylon tape connected together which are used as footholds.
*** A large nylon loop sewn together at intervals along the midlength, used to decelerate a falling free climber.
** (electronics)
*** (also computing) A bus wiring scheme in which a series of devices are connected in sequence: A to B, B to C, C to D, etc.
*** (also electrical engineering) Several electrical or electronic devices linked in series by their data or power connections, or both.
** (music) A series of samplers, sequencers, synthesizers, or other MIDI devices used in electronic music connected to one another in a chain through MIDI cables.
** (sexuality)
*** A series of complicated personal relationships in which, over time, people have had different partners who have themselves had other partners within the same group of people.
*** (slang) A group-sex formation involving multiple partners, with the participants lying in a circle, each one performing oral sex on another person.
**** 1964 September 21, Saul Bellow, Herzog, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 179:The whole feeling-and-sensation market has shot up—shock, scandal priced out of range for the average man. You have to do more than take a little gas, or slash the wrists. Pot? Zero! Daisy chains? Nothing! Debauchery? A museum word from prelibidinous times!
* (figurative) A sequence of events where each one leads to the next.
** 2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 2018-07-31:Like Brad Bird's playfully virtuosic Ghost Protocol, the high point of this franchise in more ways than one, Fallout creates an endless daisy chain of spectacle, so that one stunning display of acrobatic nerve is barely over before another begins.

#### Alternative forms

* daisy-chain

#### Derived terms

* daisy-chainer (“person who participates in a daisy chain (group-sex formation)”) (rare)

#### See also

* (computing, electronics): Ethernet

### Verb

daisy chain (third-person singular simple present daisy chains, present participle daisy chaining, simple past and past participle daisy chained)
* Alternative form of daisy-chain

### References

* ↑ “daisy chain, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “daisy chain, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “daisy-chain, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “daisy chain, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* daisy chain (electrical engineering) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* daisy chain (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia