See Also: chair(dictionary)
chair(2)(dictionary)
chair(1)(dictionary)
chair(encyclopedia)
Chair(money)
lawn chair(dictionary)
electric chair(dictionary)
rocking chair(dictionary)
chair 2, verb(dictionary)
chair 1, noun(dictionary)

chair(1) (iou)



chair noun1. ME.
[Anglo-Norman chaere, Old French chaiere (mod. chaire bishop's throne etc.) from Latin CATHEDRA.]
A separate seat for one person, of various forms, usu. with a rest for the back and more or less comfortable. ME.
armchair, Bath chair, deck-chair, dining-chair, easy chair, elbow-chair, folding chair, garden chair, Glastonbury chair, high chair, pushchair, rocking-chair, wheelchair, etc. boatswain's chair: see BOATSWAIN. chair of estate: see ESTATE noun 4. electric chair: see ELECTRIC adjective. musical chairs: see MUSICAL adjective. take a chair sit down. wainscot chair: see WAINSCOT noun 1.
b. The electric chair. US. E20.
A seat of authority, state, or dignity; fig. a place or situation of authority etc. ME.
b. The seat from which a professor etc. delivers lectures. Now chiefly fig., a professorship. LME.
c. The seat of a bishop in his church; fig. episcopal dignity or authority. Now arch. or Hist. L15.
d. The seat of a person presiding at a meeting, public dinner, etc.; fig. the office of such a person; a chairman or chairwoman. M17.
be in the chair, take the chair be chairman.
e. The seat of the chief elected official of a corporate town; fig. the office of such an official, a mayoralty. L17.
past the chair, above the chair (of an alderman etc.) who has been mayor. below the chair (of an alderman etc.) who has not been mayor.
f. A seat occupied by a Welsh bard at an Eisteddfod, esp. one awarded as a trophy; fig. a convention, now each of four, connected with the Eisteddfod. E19.
= SEDAN 1. obsolete exc. Hist. LME.
A pulpit. M17-L19.
Chiefly Hist. A kind of light chaise. M18.
An iron or steel socket fixed to a railway sleeper, securing a rail in place. E19.
Comb.: chair-bed a chair that unfolds into a bed; chair-borne adjective (colloq.) administrative rather than active; chair-car a railway carriage with chairs instead of long seats, a parlour car; chairlady a chairwoman; chair-lift a series of chairs on an endless cable for carrying passengers up a mountain etc.; chairoplane a fairground roundabout with seats suspended on chains flung in a wide circle by the revolution of the machinery; chair organ = choir organ s.v. CHOIR noun; chairperson a chairman (of either sex) of a meeting etc.; chairwoman a female chairman of a meeting etc.