chapiter

Noun

chapiter (plural chapiters)

1. The capital or uppermost part of a column, upon which the roof and its decorations are supported.
   • Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.1891, Albert Gallatin Mackey, Manual of the Lodge, page 70
2. (UK, obsolete) A written summary of matters to be inquired of or presented before justices in eyre, or justices of assize, or of the peace, in their sessions; articles.
   • and when the time commeth , the shyrecue shall certifie the chapiters before the Justices in Eire, how many writs he hath and what & c.1607, John Cowell, The Interpreter
   • And at this day chapiters are called articles, for the most part, and are delivered as well by the mouth of the justice in his charge, as by the clerks in writing, to the inquest, where in ancient time they were (after an exhortation given by the justices, for the good observation of the laws and...1812, John Rastell, William Rastell, Les Termes de la Ley: Or, Certain Difficult and Obscure Words and Terms of the Common and Statute Laws of England, Now in Use, Expounded and Explained, page 78