chaos (kaos)

[= F. Pg. chaos = Sp. It. caos = D. G. Dan. Sw. chaos = Ru . khaosŭ, Between us and you there is fixed a great chaos . Rheims N. T., Luke xvi. 26. Death keeps suicides shivering in Chaos until the allotted dying hour they vainly tried to anticipate comes around. Winthrop , Cecil Dreeme, xiii. 2. The confused or formle elementary state, not fully existing, in which the universe is sup 923 posed to have been latent before the order, uniformities, or laws of nature had been developed or created: the opposite of cosmos. All being a rude and vnformed Chaos, Tayn (say they) framed and setled the Heauen and Earth. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 445. Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy. Milton, P. L., ii. 895. 3. A confused mixture of parts or elements; confusion; disorder. Chaos of thought and pa ion, all confused. Pope, E ay on Man, ii. 13. Trieste has ever since remained Austrian in allegiance, save during the chaos of the days of the elder Buonaparte. E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 77. 4. In the language of the alchemists, the atmosphere: first so used by Para cels us. = Syn. 3. Anarchy, Chaos. See anarchy. chaotic (ka-ot'ik), a. [Irreg., fused; without order. The chaotic tumult of his mind. Disraeli . IMG:content-0147.jpg:[blocks in formation] chaotically (kā-ot'i-kal-i), adv. In a chaotic state or manner; in utter confusion. chao-ting (chou'ting'), n. [Chin., My legys they fold, my fyngers ar chappyd . Towneley Mysteries , p. 98. Like a table,... not rough, wrinkled, gaping, or chapt . B. Jonson. The voluminous sleeves were pinned up, showing a pair of wasted arms, chapped with cold and mottled with L. M. Alcott , Hospital Sketches, p. 150. bruises. 2. To strike, especially with a hammer or the like; beat. [Scotch.] II. in trans. 1. To crack; open in slits, clefts, or fi ures: as, the earth chaps ; the hands chap. Also chop.- 2. To knock, as at a door; strike, as a clock. [Scotch.] O whae is this at my bower door, That chaps sae late, or kens the gin? Erlinton (Child's Ballads, III. 221).