chasm
(ˈkæz(ə)m)
Also 6–7 chasma, 7 chasme.
[ad. L. chasma, a. Gr. χάσµα yawning hollow. The Gr.-L. form chasma was used for some time unchanged.]
† 1. A yawning or gaping, as of the sea, or of the earth in an earthquake. Obs.
| 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 31 Earth-gaping Chasma's, that mishap aboades. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. ii. §1 That gaping Chasma, and insatiable gulfe of the Soules appetite. 1652 French Yorksh. Spa ii. 31 Chasmes, and gapings of the Sea. 1656 S. H. Gold. Law 91 Earthquakes, Chasmaes, and Voragoes were at his command. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 331/1 Earthquakes, Chasma's, and the like. |
† 2. An alleged meteoric phenomenon, supposed to be a rending of the firmament or vault of heaven. [So in Latin.] Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 17 The firmament also is seene to chinke and open, and this they name Chasma. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies i. i. 1 Halo's, Rainbows, Parelia, Paraselenæ, Chasms. 1741 Short in Phil. Trans. XLI. 630 A list of all the Chasms or Burnings in the Heavens, recorded in our Annals. |
3. A large and deep rent, cleft, or fissure in the surface of the earth or other cosmical body. In later times extended to a fissure or gap, not referred to the earth as a whole, e.g. in a mountain, rock, glacier, between two precipices, etc.
| a 1636 C. Fitzgeffrey Bless. Birthd. (1881) 147 Thus is th' Abyssus fild, the Chasma clos'd. 1622–62 Heylin Cosmogr. Introd. (1682) 23 The open chinks or Chasmaes of the Earth. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iii. §1. 134 This Effort..in some Earthquakes..tears the Earth, making Cracks or Chasmes in it some Miles in length. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v., The Water of this vast Abyss..doth communicate with that of the Ocean by means of certain Holes, Hiatus's or Chasms, passing betwixt it and the Bottom of the Ocean. 1840 Carlyle Heroes i. (1858) 196 Iceland..with its..horrid volcanic chasms. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §7. 49 An arch of snow..may span a chasm one hundred feet in depth. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 135 The Colorado River..flows..at the bottom of a profound chasm. |
4. A deep gap or breach in any structure; a wide crack, cleft, or fissure. Also fig.
| 1626 W. Sclater Expos. 2 Thess. (1629) 26 Heauen it selfe, and the great Chasma betwixt it and vs. 1672 Wilkins Nat. Relig. 107 So many chasmes or breaches must there be in the Divine Nature. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 356 The amphitheatre of Verona..has no holes or chasms in the wall. 1759 tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. v. (1762) 11 An infinite number of small chasms between them, into which the roots may glide. 1815 Scott Guy M. iv, This part of the castle..exhibited a great chasm, through which Mannering could observe the sea. |
5. fig. A break marking a divergence, or a wide and profound difference of character or position, a breach of relations, feelings, interests, etc.
| 1641 R. Brooke Eng. Episc. 99 Where then is that Chasma, that great Gulf of difference? 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. i. iv. 9 That great Chasma betwixt God and Matter will be as wide as before. 1845 S. Austin tr. Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 203 The two hierarchies, the spiritual and the temporal..were now separated by a deep and wide chasm. 1866 Liddon Bampt. Lect. i. (1875) 25 If Christ be not truly man, the chasm which parted earth and heaven has not been bridged over. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life x. v. 390 A gulf..almost like the chasm of death. |
6. fig. A break or void affecting the continuity of anything, as of a chain of facts, a narrative, period of time, etc.; an intervening blank, hiatus, break, interval.
| 1654 R. Whitlock Zootomia 216 Authors with many Plurima Desunts, many Chasmes and vacancys. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 137 It is carried down from the beginning of Time..without any chasma or interval. 1704 Swift T. Tub Author's Apol., In the author's original Copy there were not so many Chasms as appear in the book. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 519 ¶7 The whole chasm of nature, from a plant to a man, is filled up with divers kinds of creatures. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 189 The fables with which our own writers have replenished the chasms in our history. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 109 The chasm of Seven Centuries. 1869 J. Martineau Ess. II. 52 There is an historical chasm manifest in their modes of thinking. |
7. A vacant place affecting the completeness of anything; a void, blank, gap.
| 1759 tr. Duhamel's Husb. ii. (1762) 125 Some chasms occasioned by our not having kept the drill in a parallel direction. 1838 Macaulay Let. in Trevelyan Life (1876) II. 2 The chasm Tom's departure has made. 1855 ― Hist. Eng. III. 580 Recruits were sent to fill the chasms which pestilence had made in the English ranks. |