Chlorite noun [ Greek ... (sc. ...), from chlwro`s light green.] (Min.) The name of a group of minerals, usually of a green color and micaceous to granular in structure. They are hydrous silicates of alumina, iron, and magnesia.

Chlorite slate , a schistose or slaty rock consisting of alumina, iron, and magnesia.

Chlorite noun [ Chlor ous + -ite .] (Chemistry) Any salt of chlorous acid; as, chlorite of sodium.

Chloritic adjective [ From 1st Chlorite .] Pertaining to, or containing, chlorite; as, chloritic sand.

Chlormethane noun (Chemistry) A colorless gas, CH ₃ Cl, of a sweet odor, easily condensed to a liquid; -- called also methyl chloride .

Chloro- (Chemistry) A prefix denoting that chlorine is an ingredient in the substance named.

Chlorocruorin noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + English cruorin .] (Physiol.) A green substance, supposed to be the cause of the green color of the blood in some species of worms. Ray Lankester.

Chlorodyne noun [ From chlor ine, in imitation of ano dyne .] (Medicine) A patent anodyne medicine, containing opium, chloroform, Indian hemp, etc.

Chloroform noun [ Chlor ine + form yl, it having been regarded as a trichloride of this radical: confer French chloroforme , German chloroform .] (Chemistry) A colorless volatile liquid, CHCl ₃ , having an ethereal odor and a sweetish taste, formed by treating alcohol with chlorine and an alkali. It is a powerful solvent of wax, resin, etc., and is extensively used to produce anæsthesia in surgical operations; also externally, to alleviate pain.

Chloroform transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Chloroformed ; present participle & verbal noun Chloroforming .] To treat with chloroform, or to place under its influence.

Chloroleucite noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + English leucite .] (Botany) Same as Chloroplastid .

Chlorometer noun [ Confer French chloromètre . See Chlorine , and - meter .] An instrument to test the decoloring or bleaching power of chloride of lime.

Chlorometry noun The process of testing the bleaching power of any combination of chlorine.

Chloropal noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + English opal .] (Min.) A massive mineral, greenish in color, and opal-like in appearance. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of iron.

Chloropeptic adjective [ Chlor ine + peptic .] (Physiol. Chem.) Of or pertaining to an acid more generally called pepsin- hydrochloric acid .

Chlorophane noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + ... to show: confer French chlorophane .]
1. (Min.) A variety of fluor spar, which, when heated, gives a beautiful emerald green light.

2. (Physiol.) The yellowish green pigment in the inner segment of the cones of the retina. See Chromophane .

Chlorophyll noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + fy`llon leaf: confer French chlorophylle .] (Botany) Literally, leaf green; a green granular matter formed in the cells of the leaves (and other parts exposed to light) of plants, to which they owe their green color, and through which all ordinary assimilation of plant food takes place. Similar chlorophyll granules have been found in the tissues of the lower animals. [ Written also chlorophyl .]

Chloroplast noun [ Prefix chloro- + Greek ... to mold, form.] (Biol.) A plastid containing chlorophyll, developed only in cells exposed to the light. Chloroplasts are minute flattened granules, usually occurring in great numbers in the cytoplasm near the cell wall, and consist of a colorless ground substance saturated with chlorophyll pigments. Under light of varying intensity they exhibit phototactic movements. In animals chloroplasts occur only in certain low forms.

Chloroplastid noun [ Greek chlwro`s light green + English plastid .] (Botany) A granule of chlorophyll; -- also called chloroleucite .

Chloroplatinic adjective (Chemistry) See Platinichloric .

Chlorosis noun [ New Latin , from Greek chlwro`s light green: confer French chlorose .]
1. (Medicine) The green sickness; an anæmic disease of young women, characterized by a greenish or grayish yellow hue of the skin, weakness, palpitation, etc.

2. (Botany) A disease in plants, causing the flowers to turn green or the leaves to lose their normal green color.

Chlorotic adjective [ Confer French chlorotique .] Pertaining to, or affected by, chlorosis.

Chlorous adjective [ See Chlorine .]
1. Of, pertaining to, or derived from, chlorine; -- said of those compounds of chlorine in which this element has a valence of three, the next lower than in chloric compounds; as, chlorous acid, HClO ₂ .

2. (Chem. Physics) Pertaining to, or resembling, the electro-negative character of chlorine; hence, electro-negative; -- opposed to basylous or zincous . [ Obsolete]

Chlorpicrin noun (Chemistry) A heavy, colorless liquid, CCl ₃ .NO ₂ , of a strong pungent odor, obtained by subjecting picric acid to the action of chlorine. [ Written also chloropikrin .]

Chloruret noun [ Confer French chlorure .] (Chemistry) A chloride. [ Obsolete]

Choak transitive verb & i. See Choke .

Choanoid adjective [ Greek ... funnel + -oid .] (Anat.) Funnel-shaped; -- applied particularly to a hollow muscle attached to the ball of the eye in many reptiles and mammals.

Chocard noun (Zoology) The chough.

Chock transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Chocked ; present participle & verbal noun Chocking .] To stop or fasten, as with a wedge, or block; to scotch; as, to chock a wheel or cask.

Chock intransitive verb To fill up, as a cavity. "The woodwork . . . exactly chocketh into joints." Fuller.

Chock noun
1. A wedge, or block made to fit in any space which it is desired to fill, esp. something to steady a cask or other body, or prevent it from moving, by fitting into the space around or beneath it.

2. (Nautical) A heavy casting of metal, usually fixed near the gunwale. It has two short horn- shaped arms curving inward, between which ropes or hawsers may pass for towing, mooring, etc.

Chock adverb (Nautical) Entirely; quite; as, chock home; chock aft.

Chock transitive verb [ French choquer . Confer Shock , transitive verb ] To encounter. [ Obsolete]

Chock noun An encounter. [ Obsolete]

Chock-full adjective Quite full; choke-full.

Chockablock adjective (Nautical) Hoisted as high as the tackle will admit; brought close together, as the two blocks of a tackle in hoisting.

Chocolate noun [ Spanish , from the Mexican name of the cacao. Confer Cacao , Cocoa .]
1. A paste or cake composed of the roasted seeds of the Theobroma Cacao ground and mixed with other ingredients, usually sugar, and cinnamon or vanilla.

2. The beverage made by dissolving a portion of the paste or cake in boiling water or milk.

Chocolate house , a house in which customers may be served with chocolate. -- Chocolate nut . See Cacao .

Choctaws noun plural ; sing. Choctaw . (Ethnol.) A tribe of North American Indians (Southern Appalachian), in early times noted for their pursuit of agriculture, and for living at peace with the white settlers. They are now one of the civilized tribes of the Indian Territory.

Chode (chōd), the old imperfect of chide . See Chide .

Chogset noun (Zoology) See Cunner .

Choice (chois) noun [ Middle English chois , Old French chois , French choix , from choisir to choose; of German origin; confer Goth. kausjan to examine, kiusan to choose, examine, German kiesen . √46. Confer Choose .]
1. Act of choosing; the voluntary act of selecting or separating from two or more things that which is preferred; the determination of the mind in preferring one thing to another; election.

2. The power or opportunity of choosing; option.

Choice there is not, unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused it.
Hooker.

3. Care in selecting; judgment or skill in distinguishing what is to be preferred, and in giving a preference; discrimination.

I imagine they [ the apothegms of Cæsar] were collected with judgment and choice .
Bacon.

4. A sufficient number to choose among. Shak.

5. The thing or person chosen; that which is approved and selected in preference to others; selection.

The common wealth is sick of their own choice .
Shak.

6. The best part; that which is preferable.

The flower and choice
Of many provinces from bound to bound.
Milton.

To make a choice of , to choose; to select; to separate and take in preference.

Syn. - See Volition , Option .

Choice adjective [ Compar. Choicer ; superl. Choicest .]
1. Worthly of being chosen or preferred; select; superior; precious; valuable.

My choicest hours of life are lost.
Swift.

2. Preserving or using with care, as valuable; frugal; -- used with of ; as, to be choice of time, or of money.

3. Selected with care, and due attention to preference; deliberately chosen.

Choice word measured phrase.
Wordsworth.

Syn. - Select; precious; exquisite; uncommon; rare; chary; careful/

Choiceful adjective Making choices; fickle. [ Obsolete]

His choiceful sense with every change doth fit.
Spenser.

Choicely adverb
1. With care in choosing; with nice regard to preference. "A band of men collected choicely , from each county some." Shak.

2. In a preferable or excellent manner; excellently; eminently. " Choicely good." Walton.

Choiceness noun The quality of being of particular value or worth; nicely; excellence.

Choir noun [ Middle English quer , Old French cuer , French chœur , from Latin chorus a choral dance, chorus, choir, from Greek ..., orig. dancing place; probably akin to ... inclosure, Latin hortus garden, and English yard . See Chorus .]
1. A band or organized company of singers, especially in church service. [ Formerly written also quire .]

2. That part of a church appropriated to the singers.

3. (Architecture) The chancel.

Choir organ (Mus.) , one of the three or five distinct organs included in the full organ, each separable from the rest, but all controlled by one performer; a portion of the full organ, complete in itself, and more practicable for ordinary service and in the accompanying of the vocal choir. -- Choir screen , Choir wall (Architecture) , a screen or low wall separating the choir from the aisles. -- Choir service , the service of singing performed by the choir. T. Warton.

Choke transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Choked ; present participle & verbal noun Choking .] [ Middle English cheken , choken ; confer Anglo-Saxon āceocian to suffocate, Icelandic koka to gulp, English chincough , cough .]
1. To render unable to breathe by filling, pressing upon, or squeezing the windpipe; to stifle; to suffocate; to strangle.

With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
Shak.

2. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up. Addison.

3. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to stifle.

Oats and darnel choke the rising corn.
Dryden.

4. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or strong feeling. "I was choked at this word." Swift.

5. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.

To choke off , to stop a person in the execution of a purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.

Choke intransitive verb
1. To have the windpipe stopped; to have a spasm of the throat, caused by stoppage or irritation of the windpipe; to be strangled.

2. To be checked, as if by choking; to stick.

The words choked in his throat.
Sir W. Scott.

Choke noun
1. A stoppage or irritation of the windpipe, producing the feeling of strangulation.

2. (Gun.) (a) The tied end of a cartridge. (b) A constriction in the bore of a shotgun, case of a rocket, etc.

Choke damp See Carbonic acid , under Carbonic .

Choke pear
1. A kind of pear that has a rough, astringent taste, and is swallowed with difficulty, or which contracts the mucous membrane of the mouth.

2. A sarcasm by which one is put to silence; anything that can not be answered. [ Low] S. Richardson.

Chokeberry noun (Botany) The small apple-shaped or pear-shaped fruit of an American shrub ( Pyrus arbutifolia ) growing in damp thickets; also, the shrub.