daisy chain

Noun

daisy chain (plural daisy chains)

1. A garland to be worn on the head, made (usually as a pastime) by sewing or otherwise linking the stems of the flowers of daisies (Bellis perennis) into a ring.
2. (broadly) A thing resembling a daisy chain (noun sense 1) in having several elements connected together, often in a circle.
   • And, for her father, it seemed as if it were a home-like, comfortable thought to him, that her mother had one of her children with her. He called her [his deceased daughter] the first link of his Daisy Chain drawn up out of sight; […]1856, [Charlotte Mary Yonge], chapter XXV, in The Daisy Chain; or, Aspirations. A Family Chronicle. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, part II, page 641
   1. (broadly, backpacking) A small strip of webbing with multiple loops, which allows a backpacker to secure several objects to the exterior of a backpack.
   2. (broadly) A group of dealers who buy and sell a commodity (originally crude oil, especially in a single shipment) among themselves in order to artificially increase its price before it is sold to a party outside the group.
   3. (broadly) A ladder consisting of loops of nylon tape connected together which are used as footholds.
   4. (broadly) A large nylon loop sewn together at intervals along the midlength, used to decelerate a falling free climber.
   5. (also, broadly) A bus wiring scheme in which a series of devices are connected in sequence: A to B, B to C, C to D, etc.
   6. (also, broadly) Several electrical or electronic devices linked in series by their data or power connections, or both.
   7. (broadly) A series of samplers, sequencers, synthesizers, or other MIDI devices used in electronic music connected to one another in a chain through MIDI cables.
   8. (broadly) A series of complicated personal relationships in which, over time, people have had different partners who have themselves had other partners within the same group of people.
   9. (broadly, slang) A group-sex formation involving multiple partners, with the participants lying in a circle, each one performing oral sex on another person.
      • The whole feeling-and-sensation market has shot up—shock, scandal priced out of range for the average man. You have to do more than take a little gas, or slash the wrists. Pot? Zero! Daisy chains? Nothing! Debauchery? A museum word from prelibidinous times!1964 September 21, Saul Bellow, Herzog, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 179
3. (figuratively) A sequence of events where each one leads to the next.
   • Like Brad Bird's playfully virtuosic Ghost Protocol, the high point of this franchise in more ways than one, Fallout creates an endless daisy chain of spectacle, so that one stunning display of acrobatic nerve is barely over before another begins.2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2018