[chap-ter] 
| 1. | a main division of a book, treatise, or the like, usually bearing a number or title. |
| 2. | a branch, usually restricted to a given locality, of a society, organization, fraternity, etc.: the Connecticut chapter of the American Red Cross. |
| 3. | an important portion or division of anything: The atomic bomb opened a new chapter in history. |
| 4. | Ecclesiastical.
|
| 5. | any general assembly. |
| 6. | Liturgy. a short scriptural quotation read at various parts of the office, as after the last psalm in the service of lauds, prime, tierce, etc. |
| 7. | Horology. any of the marks or numerals designating the hours on a dial. |
| 8. | to divide into or arrange in chapters. |
| a section of the Bankruptcy Code that provides for the reorganization of an insolvent corporation under court supervision and can establish a schedule for the payment of debts and, in some cases, a new corporation that can continue to do business. |
| chap·ter (chāp'tər) n.
[Middle English chaptre, variant of chapitre, chapter, chapiter, from Old French, alteration of chapitle, from Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.] |
Chapter 11
Case Study The turn of the century produced difficult business conditions for many companies, including one of America's technical giants, Polaroid Corporation. Founded by Edwin Land and George Wheelwright in 1937, Polaroid was best known for instant photography and glare-free sunglasses. During the 1960s and early 1970s the firm's common stock was part of the |
Chapter
The several books of the Old and New Testaments were from an early time divided into chapters. The Pentateuch was divided by the ancient Hebrews into 54 _parshioth_ or sections, one of which was read in the synagogue every Sabbath day (Acts. 13:15). These sections were afterwards divided into 669 _sidrim_ or orders of unequal length. The Prophets were divided in somewhat the same manner into _haphtaroth_ or passages. In the early Latin and Greek versions of the Bible, similar divisions of the several books were made. The New Testament books were also divided into portions of various lengths under different names, such as titles and heads or chapters. In modern times this ancient example was imitated, and many attempts of the kind were made before the existing division into chapters was fixed. The Latin Bible published by Cardinal Hugo of St. Cher in A.D. 1240 is generally regarded as the first Bible that was divided into our present chapters, although it appears that some of the chapters were fixed as early as A.D. 1059. This division into chapters came gradually to be adopted in the published editions of the Hebrew, with some few variations, and of the Greek Scriptures, and hence of other versions.
Nifty Fifty,
a collection of must-own securities for many portfolio managers and individual investors. Changing consumer preferences, a technological revolution in photography, debt incurred to fend off an attempted takeover, and faulty management decisions during the next several decades sent the firm's stock into a downward spiral until the shares traded for only 28¢ just prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 12, 2001. At the time of the filing the company listed $1.81 billion in assets and $948 million in debts, including a $360 million bank loan that was due in one month. The stock traded as high as $60 per share in 1997. Polaroid's problems stemmed in large part from the increased popularity of digital photography, which captured substantial market share from the firm's products in instant photography. Other photographers discovered the widespread availability of one-hour processing was nearly as convenient and less costly than instant photography. Polaroid had taken on substantial debt in 1988 when it successfully fought a takeover attempt by Shamrock Holdings. The combination of large debt, high costs, and deteriorating market share doomed an American icon. At the time of the bankruptcy filing many analysts expected the firm to be liquidated and its assets sold piecemeal.