What does chased mean?
Chased is the past tense and past participle of the verb chase, meaning to pursue rapidly in order to catch, overtake, or drive off someone or something. It covers everything from literal pursuit — a cat chased a mouse, police chased a suspect — to figurative striving, as in having chased a dream or chased success for years. The word carries connotations of urgency, motion, and often desperation or determination, depending on context. Less familiar to most readers is its use as an adjective in metalworking, where chased describes surfaces ornamented with raised designs worked into the metal from the front using small tools, a technique long used on silver and gold. Both meanings descend from Old French chacier, ultimately from Latin capere, 'to take' or 'seize', making chased a linguistic cousin of capture and captive.
Past tense and past participle of chase: to have pursued someone or something in order to catch or drive them away.
"The children chased each other around the garden all afternoon."
(Of metal) decorated with a design raised by chasing — embossing the surface without cutting away material.
"He inherited a chased brass tray that had belonged to his grandmother."
Restricted mainly to descriptions of antique or fine metalwork.
When you're chased, you're literally being 'captured-in-progress' — the word traces straight back to the Latin capere, 'to take'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chased
Chased derives from Middle English chacen, borrowed from Old French chacier ('to hunt, pursue'), which came from Vulgar Latin captiare, a frequentative form of Latin capere ('to take, seize'). This makes it etymologically related to words such as capture, captive, and capable. The metalworking sense of chased entered English separately in the 15th century via French chasser, likely from the same Romance root, referring to driving or working designs into a metal surface.
How chased is actually used
Primarily the inflected form of the common verb 'chase'; neutral register. As a participial adjective, 'chased' appears mostly in the specialist context of metalwork ('chased silver', 'chased gold'), where it describes surface decoration made without removing material.
Easily confused with chased
'Cased' means enclosed in a case or examined a location before a crime, whereas 'chased' means pursued.