[chap-uh
l] 
noun, verb, -eled, -el⋅ing or (especially British) -elled, -el⋅ling, adjective | 1. | a private or subordinate place of prayer or worship; oratory. |
| 2. | a separately dedicated part of a church, or a small independent churchlike edifice, devoted to special services. |
| 3. | a room or building for worship in an institution, palace, etc. |
| 4. | (in Great Britain) a place of worship for members of various dissenting Protestant churches, as Baptists or Methodists. |
| 5. | a separate place of public worship dependent on the church of a parish. |
| 6. | a religious service in a chapel: Don't be late for chapel! |
| 7. | a funeral home or the room in which funeral services are held. |
| 8. | a choir or orchestra of a chapel, court, etc. |
| 9. | a print shop or printing house. |
| 10. | an association of employees in a print shop for dealing with their interests, problems, etc. |
| 11. | Nautical. to maneuver (a sailing vessel taken aback) by the helm alone until the wind can be recovered on the original tack. |
| 12. | (in England) belonging to any of various dissenting Protestant sects. |
| chap·el (chāp'əl) n.
[Middle English chapele, from Old French, from Medieval Latin capella, chapel, canopy, cape (perhaps from a shrine containing the cape of St. Martin of Tours), diminutive of capa, from Late Latin cappa, hooded cloak.] |
Chapel
a holy place or sanctuary, occurs only in Amos 7:13, where one of the idol priests calls Bethel "the king's chapel."
chapel
small, intimate place of worship. The name was originally applied to the shrine in which the kings of France preserved the cape (late Latin cappella, diminutive of cappa) of St. Martin. By tradition, this garment had been torn into two pieces by St. Martin of Tours (c. 316-397) that he might share it with a ragged beggar; later Martin had a vision of Christ wearing the half cape, and it was preserved as a relic and carried about by the Frankish kings on their military campaigns. By extension, any sanctuary housing relics was called a chapel and the priest cappellanus, or chaplain. By a further extension, all places of worship that were not mother churches, including a large number of miscellaneous foundations, came to be known as chapels. Oratories, places of private worship attached to royal residences, also were termed chapels. Thus the Sainte Chapelle (1248), the palace chapel at Paris, was built by St. Louis IX to enshrine the relic of what was thought to be the Crown of Thorns, which he had brought from Constantinople. In the next century, other saintes chapelles were founded by princes of the French royal house at Bourges, Riom, and elsewhere.
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