I. ˈchimnē, -ni noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French cheminée, from Late Latin caminata, from Latin caminus furnace, fireplace, from Greek kaminos; akin to Greek kamara vault — more at chamber
1. dialect : fireplace , hearth — compare chimney corner
2.
a. : a vertical structure incorporated into a building and enclosing a flue or flues that carry off smoke or other undesirable fumes or gases ; especially : the part of such a structure extending above a roof — compare chimney breast
b. : a pipelike more or less vertical natural vent or opening in the earth:
(1) : the conduit of a volcano
(2) : a passage or shaft in the roof or floor of a cave
(3) : a moulin of small diameter
c. : a columnar geological erosion feature that is smaller than a stack on a wave-cut platform
3. Britain : the smokestack of a locomotive
4.
a. : a tube usually of glass and usually shaped placed around a flame (as of a lamp) to serve as a shield and to create a draft and promote combustion
b. : a glass shield made to resemble or resembling such a tube and enclosing an electric light
5. : a steep and very narrow cleft or gully in the face of a cliff or mountain
6. : a small tube through the top of a stopped metal pipe of an organ permitting air to escape to sharpen the pitch
7. : a vertical or steeply inclined shoot of roughly columnar shape in a body of ore
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to climb (a chimney) in mountaineering by the use of body pressure against the sides
III. noun
: a tall column of rock on the ocean floor that is formed by the precipitation of minerals from superheated water issuing from a vent in the earth's crust and rising through the column of rock