I. ˈchan(t)s(ə)rē, -aan-, -ain-, -ȧn-, -ri noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English chancerie, alteration of chancellerie chancellery
1.
a. usually capitalized : a former high court having jurisdiction in England and Wales over causes in equity and various common-law functions and now forming the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice with jurisdiction over causes in equity
b. : a court of equity in the American judicial system
c. : the principles and practice of judicial administration of cases on grounds of conscience and equity where strict law cannot afford relief
d. obsolete : a judicial adjustment (as a curtailment) on grounds of equitability of a claim, bond, or similar matter of dispute
2. : a record office originally for issuance and preservation of a sovereign's diplomas, charters, and bulls and later for the collection, arrangement, and safekeeping of public archives and ecclesiastical, legal, or diplomatic proceedings
the papal chancery
organize a chancery for a consulate
the various chanceries of the orders of knighthood — F.J.Grant
3.
a. : a chancellor's court or office or the building in which he has his office
b. : an office or department of the Roman curia now charged mainly with the sending of bulls for consistorial benefices and new dioceses
c. : the office in which the business of a diocese is transacted and recorded
d. : the office of a foreign embassy : chancellery 3
4. : a style of cursive handwriting used by papal secretaries from the middle of the 15th century and imitated in early italic type
5. : a wrestling hold that imprisons the head or encircles the neck : stranglehold
•
- in chancery
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
obsolete : chancer