# chamber
## English
### Alternative forms

* chambre (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English chambre, borrowed from Old French chambre, from Latin camera, from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vaulted chamber”). Doublet of camera.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtʃeɪmbə(ɹ)/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈt͡ʃeɪmbɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪmbə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: cham‧ber

### Noun

chamber (plural chambers)
* A room or set of rooms, particularly:
** The private room of an individual, especially of someone wealthy or noble.
*** 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 143:Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
** A bedroom.
** The private office of a judge.
** The room used for deliberation by a legislature.
** (UK) A single law office in a building housing several.
** (dated, usually in the plural) Rooms in a lodging house.
*** 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Which Had Very Nearly Been the Last of the Story”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 120:A committee of marriageable ladies, or of any Christian persons interested in the propagation of the domestic virtues, should employ a Cruikshank or a Leech, or some other kindly expositor of the follies of the day, to make a series of designs representing the horrors of a bachelor's life in chambers, and leading the beholder to think of better things, and a more wholesome condition.
* (obsolete) Ellipsis of chamber pot: a container used for urination and defecation in one's chambers.
** 1946, Elizabeth Metzger Howard, Before the Sun Goes Down, page 31:"Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."
* (figuratively) The legislature or division of the legislature itself.
    The resolution, which speedily passed the Senate, was unable to gain a majority in the lower chamber.
* Any enclosed space occupying or similar to a room.
    A canal lock chamber; a furnace chamber; a test chamber
* (biology) An enlarged space in an underground tunnel of a burrowing animal.
* (firearms) The area holding the ammunition round at the initiation of its discharge.
    Dianne loaded a cartridge into the chamber of the rifle, then prepared to take aim at the target.
* (firearms) One of the bullet-holding compartments in the cylinder of a revolver.
* (historical) A short piece of ordnance or cannon which stood on its breech without any carriage, formerly used chiefly for celebrations and theatrical cannonades.
* One of the two atria or two ventricles of the heart.

#### Synonyms

* (chamber pot): See Thesaurus:chamber pot

#### Derived terms

* air chamber
* antechamber
* anterior chamber
* barochamber
* bedchamber
* biochamber
* black chamber
* blue chamber
* bridechamber
* brood chamber
* bubble chamber
* burial chamber
* chamber candlestick
* chamber composer
* chamber ensemble
* chamberesque
* chamber foreign
* chamberful
* chamber gate
* chamber horse
* chamberlain
* chamber lamp
* chamberlet
* chamberlike
* chamber lye
* chambermaid
* chambermate
* chamber music
* chamber of commerce
* chamber of horrors
* chamber opera
* chamber orchestra
* chamber organ
* chamber play
* chamber pop
* chamber pot
* chamberstick
* chamberware
* chamberwoman
* chamber-work
* climate chamber
* cloud chamber
* combustion chamber
* cryochamber
* death chamber
* decompression chamber
* dumb chamber
* echo chamber
* enchamber
* gas chamber
* guestchamber
* hemichamber
* hyperbaric chamber
* hyperbaric oxygen chamber
* in chambers
* interchamber
* intrachamber
* lead chamber process
* lethal chamber
* living chamber
* lockchamber
* lower chamber
* macrochamber
* magma chamber
* microchamber
* multichamber
* outchamber
* phytochamber
* plenum chamber
* posterior chamber
* prechamber
* presence chamber
* pulp chamber
* rain chamber
* rechamber
* red chamber
* resonating chamber
* sole chamber
* star chamber
* subchamber
* time projection chamber
* Torricellian chamber
* torture chamber
* unchamber
* underchamber
* upper chamber
* Ussing chamber
* waterchamber
* widow's chamber
* Wilson chamber
* wire chamber
* yeoman of the chamber

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

chamber (third-person singular simple present chambers, present participle chambering, simple past and past participle chambered)
* (transitive) To enclose in a room.
    She had chambered herself in her room, and wouldn't come out.
* To reside in or occupy a chamber or chambers.
** 1893, Publications of the Scottish History Society, volume 14, page 64:I chambered with Alexander Preston.
* (transitive) To place in a chamber, as a round of ammunition.
    The hunter fired at the geese and missed, then shrugged his shoulders and chambered another cartridge.
* (transitive) To create or modify a gun to be a specific caliber.
    The rifle was originally chambered for 9mm, but had since been modified for a larger, wildcat caliber.
* (martial arts, transitive) To prepare an offensive, defensive, or counteroffensive action by drawing a limb or weapon to a position where it may be charged with kinetic energy.
    Bob chambered his fist for a blow, but Sheila struck first.
* (obsolete) To be lascivious.
    (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

#### Synonyms

* (to be lascivious): blissom, lust; see also Thesaurus:harlotize

### Anagrams

* becharm, chambre, chambré