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Chief   /tʃif/   Listen
adjective
Chief  adj.  
1.
Highest in office or rank; principal; head. "Chief rulers."
2.
Principal or most eminent in any quality or action; most distinguished; having most influence; taking the lead; most important; as, the chief topic of conversation; the chief interest of man.
3.
Very intimate, near, or close. (Obs.) "A whisperer separateth chief friends."
Synonyms: Principal; head; leading; main; paramount; supreme; prime; vital; especial; great; grand; eminent; master.


noun
Chief  n.  
1.
The head or leader of any body of men; a commander, as of an army; a head man, as of a tribe, clan, or family; a person in authority who directs the work of others; the principal actor or agent.
2.
The principal part; the most valuable portion. "The chief of the things which should be utterly destroyed."
3.
(Her.) The upper third part of the field. It is supposed to be composed of the dexter, sinister, and middle chiefs.
In chief.
(a)
At the head; as, a commander in chief.
(b)
(Eng. Law) From the king, or sovereign; as, tenure in chief, tenure directly from the king.
Synonyms: Chieftain; captain; general; commander; leader; head; principal; sachem; sagamore; sheik. Chief, chieftain, Commander, Leader. These words fluctuate somewhat in their meaning according to circumstances, but agree in the general idea of rule and authority. The term chief is now more usually applied to one who is a head man, leader, or commander in civil or military affairs, or holds a hereditary or acquired rank in a tribe or clan; as, the chief of police; the chief of an Indian tribe. A chieftain is the chief of a clan or tribe, or a military leader. A commander directs the movements of or has control over a body of men, as a military or naval force. A leader is one whom men follow, as in a political party, a legislative body, a military or scientific expedition, etc., one who takes the command and gives direction in particular enterprises.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Chief" Quotes from Famous Books



... might easily have been characteristic of Leaver himself, even though Burns had not remembered it. His own heart was thumping heavily in his breast, as it had never thumped when he had been the chief ...
— Mrs. Red Pepper • Grace S. Richmond
... with avoiding sin and resisting his concupiscences, which move him in opposition to charity: this concerns beginners, in whom charity has to be fed or fostered lest it be destroyed: in the second place man's chief pursuit is to aim at progress in good, and this is the pursuit of the proficient, whose chief aim is to strengthen their charity by adding to it: while man's third pursuit is to aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God: this ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... Fergus Kervall became High-king in 544. A chief named Aed Guairy murdered one of Dermot's officers, and sought sanctuary with St. Ruadan of Lorrha, one of Findian's twelve apostles, to whom he was related. The king hailed him forth, and brought him ...
— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris
... will go rather far that the use of an occasional English word is entirely harmless, but that English sentences should as much as possible be avoided in elementary work. Connected translation, both from and into English, must absolutely be excluded from the first year's work, for the chief purpose of this year is not only the study of grammar and the development of an elementary vocabulary, but, even more than that, the cultivation of the right attitude toward language study. Reading should be our chief aim, and speaking a means to that end, but the student must ...
— College Teaching - Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College • Paul Klapper
... many heavier loads, in her own breast. A change had stolen, and was stealing yet, over the patient heart. Every day found her something more retiring than the day before. To pass in and out of the prison unnoticed, and elsewhere to be overlooked and forgotten, were, for herself, her chief desires. ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens


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