chair

From Middle English chayer, chaire, chaiere, chaere, chayre, chayere, borrowed from Old French chaiere, chaere, from Latin cathedra (“seat”), from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra), from κατά (katá, “down”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”). Displaced native stool and settle, which now have more specialised senses. Doublet of chaise.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛəɹ/

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophone: chare

A chair (item of furniture).

Chairs (rail supports on a railway).

chair (plural chairs)

1. An item of furniture used to sit on or in, comprising a seat, legs, back, and sometimes arm rests, for use by one person. Compare stool, couch, sofa, settee, loveseat and bench.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   All I need to weather a snowstorm is hot coffee, a warm fire, a good book and a comfortable chair.

2. Clipping of chairperson.
   • 1658 March 23, Thomas Burton, John Towell Rutt, editor, Diary, London: Henry Colburn, published 1828, page 243:

     The Chair behaves himself like a Busby amongst so many school-boys […] and takes a little too much on him.

   • 1887 September 5, The Times:

     It can hardly be conceived that the Chair would fail to gain the support of the House.

   Under the rules of order adopted by the board, the chair may neither make nor second motions.

3. (music) The seating position of a particular musician in an orchestra.

   My violin teacher used to play first chair with the Boston Pops.

4. (rail transport) An iron block used on railways to support the rails and secure them to the sleepers, and similar devices.
5. (chemistry) One of two possible conformers of cyclohexane rings (the other being boat), shaped roughly like a chair.
6. (slang, with the) Ellipsis of electric chair
   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 251:

     'All for a pig of a man who should have gone to the chair.'

   He killed a cop: he's going to get the chair.

   The court will show no mercy; if he gets convicted, it's the chair for him.

7. A distinguished professorship at a university.
   • 2014 April 12, Michael Inwood, “Martin Heidegger: the philosopher who fell for Hitler [print version: Hitler's philosopher]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎, London, page R11:

     In 1928 [Martin] Heidegger succeeded [Edmund] Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg […]

8. A vehicle for one person; either a sedan borne upon poles, or a two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse; a gig.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene v], page 104, column 2:

     Enter Mortimer, brought in a Chayre, and Iaylors.

   • 1712, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Beauties of Pope, London: G. Kearsley, published 1783, page 32:

     Think what an equipage thou haſt in air, / And view with ſcorn two pages and a chair.

9. The seat or office of a person in authority, such as a judge or bishop.

chair (third-person singular simple present chairs, present participle chairing, simple past and past participle chaired)

1. (transitive) To act as chairperson at; to preside over.

   Bob will chair tomorrow's meeting.

2. (transitive) To carry in a seated position upon one's shoulders, especially in celebration or victory.
   • 1896, A. E. Houseman, "To An Athlete Dying Young," in A Shropshire Lad

     The time you won your town the race

     We chaired you through the marketplace.

3. (transitive, Wales, Britain) To award a chair to (a winning poet) at a Welsh eisteddfod.

   The poet was chaired at the national Eisteddfod.

• Archi, archi-

From Middle French chair, char, from Old French char, charn (earlier carn), from Latin carnem, accusative of carō, from Proto-Italic *karō, from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *(s)ker-.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛʁ/
• Homophones: chaire, chaires, chairs, cher, chers, chère, chères, cherres
• Rhymes: -ɛʁ

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chair f (plural chairs)

1. flesh

• chair de poule

• “chair” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Old French cheoir, from Latin cado, cognate with French choir.

chair

1. to fall
2. to crash

   Une avion san liméro qu'est chaite ste netey à Eastdown dan le Sussex

   A plane without number that has crashed this night at Eastdown, Sussex

chair

1. Lenited form of cair.

chair f

1. Lenited form of cair.

• char

From Old French char, charn, from Latin carnem, accusative singular of carō.

chair f (plural chairs)

1. flesh

• French: chair

chair

1. alternative infinitive of cheoir.

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has a stressed present stem chié distinct from the unstressed stem che, as well as other irregularities. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.