\Chan"cer*y\, n. [F. chancellerie, LL. cancellaria,
from L. cancellarius. See {Chancellor}, and cf.
{Chancellery}.]
1. In England, formerly, the highest court of judicature next
   to the Parliament, exercising jurisdiction at law, but
   chiefly in equity; but under the jurisdiction act of 1873
   it became the chancery division of the High Court of
   Justice, and now exercises jurisdiction only in equity.
2. In the Unites States, a court of equity; equity;
   proceeding in equity.
Note: A court of chancery, so far as it is a court of equity,
      in the English and American sense, may be generally, if
      not precisely, described as one having jurisdiction in
      cases of rights, recognized and protected by the
      municipal jurisprudence, where a plain, adequate, and
      complete remedy can not be had in the courts of common
      law. In some of the American States, jurisdiction at
      law and in equity centers in the same tribunal. The
      courts of the United States also have jurisdiction both
      at law and in equity, and in all such cases they
      exercise their jurisdiction, as courts of law, or as
      courts of equity, as the subject of adjudication may
      require. In others of the American States, the courts
      that administer equity are distinct tribunals, having
      their appropriate judicial officers, and it is to the
      latter that the appellation courts of chancery is
      usually applied; but, in American law, the terms equity
      and court of equity are more frequently employed than
      the corresponding terms chancery and court of chancery.
      --Burrill.
{Inns of chancery}. See under {Inn}.
{To get (or to hold) In chancery} (Boxing), to get the head
   of an antagonist under one's arm, so that one can pommel
   it with the other fist at will; hence, to have wholly in
   One's power. The allusion is to the condition of a person
   involved in the chancery court, where he was helpless,
   while the lawyers lived upon his estate.