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chair
[ chair ]
noun
- a seat, especially for one person, usually having four legs for support and a rest for the back and often having rests for the arms.
- something that serves as a chair or supports like a chair:
The two men clasped hands to make a chair for their injured companion.
- a seat of office or authority.
- a position of authority, as of a judge, professor, etc.
- the person occupying a seat of office, especially the chairperson of a meeting:
The speaker addressed the chair.
- (in an orchestra) the position of a player, assigned by rank; desk:
first clarinet chair.
- the chair, Informal. electric chair.
- (in reinforced-concrete construction) a device for maintaining the position of reinforcing rods or strands during the pouring operation.
- a glassmaker's bench having extended arms on which a blowpipe is rolled in shaping glass.
- British Railroads. a metal block for supporting a rail and securing it to a crosstie or the like.
verb (used with object)
- to place or seat in a chair.
- to install in office.
- to preside over; act as chairperson of:
to chair a committee.
- British. to carry (a hero or victor) aloft in triumph.
verb (used without object)
- to preside over a meeting, committee, etc.
chair
/ tʃɛə /
noun
- a seat with a back on which one person sits, typically having four legs and often having arms
- an official position of authority
a chair on the board of directors
- the person chairing a debate or meeting
the speaker addressed the chair
- a professorship
the chair of German
- railways an iron or steel cradle bolted to a sleeper in which the rail sits and is locked in position
- See sedan chairshort for sedan chair
- in the chairin the chair chairing a debate or meeting
- take the chairtake the chair to preside as chairman for a meeting, etc
- See electric chairthe chairthe chair an informal name for electric chair
verb
- to preside over (a meeting)
- to carry aloft in a sitting position after a triumph or great achievement
- to provide with a chair of office
- to install in a chair
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Gender Note
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Other Words From
- chair·less adjective
- un·chair verb (used with object)
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of chair1
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Idioms and Phrases
- get the chair, to be sentenced to die in the electric chair.
- take the chair,
- to begin or open a meeting.
- to preside at a meeting; act as chairperson.
More idioms and phrases containing chair
see musical chairs .Discover More
Example Sentences
While 19 percent of the House is female, just one woman will get to chair one of its 20 committees.
She added: “NBC News is proud to have David in the important anchor chair of ‘Meet the Press.’ ”
Still fearful and smarting from the pain, I arrived on time and was led to chair in his office.
In our screenings, he always sits in the same corner chair and always looks hopeful, no matter what the movie.
For a large fee, you could be pushed down the boardwalk on a rolling wicker chair by a black worker.
It ended on a complaint that she was 'tired rather and spending my time at full length on a deck-chair in the garden.'
With a suffocating gasp, she fell back into the chair on which she sat, and covered her face with her hands.
The president sat in a chair which came over with the pilgrims in their ship, the Mayflower.
She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm.
He noticed at the same time several burnt matches between his cushions and her chair.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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