chase¹ / chās/ • v. [tr.] 1. pursue in order to catch or catch up with: police chased the stolen car [intr.] the dog chased after the stick. ∎  seek to attain: seventy candidates chasing a single job. ∎  seek the company of (a member of the opposite sex) in an obvious way. ∎  [tr.] drive or cause to go in a specified direction: she chased him out of the house. 2. try to make contact with (someone) in order to get something owed or required: chasing customers who had not paid their bills. ∎  make further investigation of (an unresolved matter): investigators got a warrant to chase down the case. • n. an act of pursuing someone or something: they captured the youths after a brief chase. ∎  (the chase) hunting as a sport: she was an ardent follower of the chase. ∎ short for steeplechase. ∎  Brit. an area of unenclosed land formerly reserved for hunting. ∎ archaic a hunted animal.PHRASES: give chase go in pursuit. chase² • v. [tr.] [usu. as adj.] (chased) engrave (metal, or a design on metal): a miniature container with a delicately chased floral design.chase³ • n. (in letterpress printing) a metal frame for holding the composed type and blocks being printed at one time. chase⁴ • n. 1. the part of a gun enclosing the bore. 2. a groove or furrow cut in the face of a wall or other surface to receive a pipe.

chase 1 hunting, pursuit. XIII. — OF. chace (mod. chasse) :- Rom. *captia, f. *captiāre.
So chase vb. pursue, drive away XIII; hunt XIV. — OF. chacier (mod. chasser) :- Rom. *captiāre, for L. captāre, frequent. of capere take (cf. HEAVE). See CATCH.

chase 2 adorn (metal) with engraving. XIV. contemp. with synon. enchase, of which it may be an aphetic deriv.; perh. — (O)F. enchâsser enclose in a reliquary, put a gem in a setting, f. EN- 1 + châsse casket, reliquary :- L. capsa CASE 2.

chase 3
A. .(typogr.) frame in which composed type is locked up;

B. .cavity of a gun-barrel. XVII. perh. f. F. chas enclosure, châsse setting, case :- L. capsus enclosed receptacle and capsa repository, CASE 2; but it is doubtful whether A and B should be coupled.

chase beast of chase an animal traditionally hunted for sport across open country.
chase the dragon take heroin by heating it on a piece of folded tin foil and inhaling the fumes. The term is said to be translated from Chinese, and to arise from the fact that the fumes and the molten heroin powder move up and down the piece of tin foil with an undulating movement resembling the tail of the dragon in Chinese myths.