This was not quite how things appeared to the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus before he fought the invading Roman army in AD 83.
During a formal visit to the chieftain of the tribe, he was offered tea.
The chieftain gave his orders for the defense of the village.
To Sigurd I will now openly tell, since the chieftain me thereto compels: thou wilt surely find that I lie not.
A chieftain's daughter joins the throng round the old messighit.
"Come and eat," was the watchword of every chieftain on the Missouri.
Had he not been to far-off Britain and brought a British chieftain captive to Rome?
The chieftain's self-confidence was so ingrained and deeply set that he could not doubt his own triumph.
No words can picture the scorn which the chieftain threw into these expressions.
They looked like shadows as they gathered in the darkness about their chieftain.
early 14c., cheftayne "ruler, chief, head" of something, from Anglo-French chiefteyn, Old French chevetain "captain, chief, leader," from Late Latin capitaneus "commander," from Latin capitis, genitive of caput "head" (see capitulum). According to "Rob Roy" (1818) a Highland chieftain was the head of a branch of a clan, a chief was the head of the whole name. Related: Chieftainship.
