The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - chain n.

1) string, series, combination; sequence, succession, train, course, set, concatenation: He owns a chain of bookshops. Interruption of the food chain can cause serious ecological consequences. A curious chain of circumstances led me to a small hotel at Torquay in February. 2) restraint, check, trammel, control, confinement, fetter, bond, manacle, shackle, gyve: The family finally threw off the chains of poverty. --v. 3) shackle, secure, fasten, bind, gyve; confine, fetter, restrain, confine, restrict, tie, limit: Prometheus was chained to a rock as punishment for having brought fire to man. Marguerite felt chained after twenty years of marriage.