electric chair

"Old Sparky" from Sing-Sing prison.

electric chair (plural electric chairs)

1. A chair-like device used for performing execution by electrocution.
   • 2000, Sverre Grimnes & ‎Ørjan Grøttem Martinsen, Bioimpedance and Bioelectricity Basics, →ISBN, page 309:

     The current path in an electric chair is from a scalp electrode to a calf electrode. The current is therefore passing the brain and the brain stem, the lung and the heart. It is believed that the person becomes unconscious immediately after current onset, but it is well known that death is not immediate. The electric chair was used for the first time in 1890, and the first jolt was with 1400 V 60 Hz applied for 17 seconds, which proved insufficient.

   • 2003, Guy Cheli, Sing Sing Prison, →ISBN:

     The electric chair has always been linked to Sing Sing.

   • 2013, James S. Hirsch, Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter, →ISBN, page 1:

     The Death House was Trenton State Prison's official name for the brick and concrete vault where condemned men lived in tiny cells and an electric chair stood hard against a nearby wall.

2. (informal) An electrically powered wheelchair.
   • 2006, Molvia Maddox, Perfectly Flawed, →ISBN, page 90:

     She much preferred her manual wheelchair, so we got into the routine of using the manual chair out of school, and the electric chair at school. The one thing that she did find amusing about the electric chair was that she had to take a 'driving test'.

   • 2012, Sandra I. Bordenca, It's Okay to Laugh Sometimes, →ISBN, page 40:

     While I was "driving" in my electric chair to the only liquor store in town, the owner of the store would always smile when he saw me and say, "I don't know if I should sell to you. I don't want to be responsible for you drinking and driving."

   • 2012, Sharon M. Draper, Out of My Mind, →ISBN, page 36:

     He zooms his electric chair around the raggedy old snowman, tossing Velcroed stars and bells at it, asking, "Snowman go zoom zoom?"