Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A chain used to secure something, especially a part of the dress and personal equipment, as, in the middle ages, the hilt of the sword to the breastplate or other part of the body-armor, or at the present day a watch, brooch, or bracelet. See cut under
belt .
Etymologies
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Examples
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He presented his tutor with his best-bound books, and his gold guard-chain, and wanted him to take his double-barrelled gun.
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She saw the purse Effie was knitting for Albert, and the guard-chain
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Fagin, placing a snuff-box in one pocket of his trousers, a notecase in the other, and a watch in his waistcoat pocket, with a guard-chain round his neck, and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt, buttoned his coat tight round him, and putting his spectacle-case and handkerchief in his pockets, trotted up and down with a stick, in imitation of the manner in which old gentlemen walk about the streets.
Ten Boys from Dickens Kate Dickinson Sweetser 1903
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William, fumbling with the guard-chain, was silent.
The Awakening of Helena Richie Margaret Wade Campbell Deland 1901
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Grasping in one hand the guard-chain of his watch, he dashed the watch itself two or three times against the stone basin-rim.
Bressant Julian Hawthorne 1890
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He wore a big cluster diamond pin, a sort of hen-and-chickens of his own, secured by a minute guard-chain on a ruffled shirt-front of snowiest linen, where clung dry crumbs of the "fine-cut" which puffed the lower side pockets of his gray alpaca sack coat.
Gideon's Band A Tale of the Mississippi George Washington Cable 1884
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Owing to Mr. Adolph's systematic arrangements, when St. Clare turned round from paying the hackman, there was nobody in view but Mr. Adolph himself, conspicuous in satin vest, gold guard-chain, and white pants, and bowing with inexpressible grace and suavity.
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1853
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Owing to Mr. Adolph's systematic arrangements, when St. Clare turned round from paying the hackman, there was nobody in view but Mr. Adolph himself, conspicuous in satin vest, gold guard-chain, and white pants, and bowing with inexpressible grace and suavity.
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He presented his tutor with his best-bound books, and his gold guard-chain, and wanted him to take his double-barrelled gun.
The History of Pendennis William Makepeace Thackeray 1837
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A fellow appears with a pink guard-chain and two breast-pins in his shirt, -- one a masonic one of gold, with compass and square, and the other of colored glass, set in filigree brass, -- and the shirt a soiled one.
Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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