chair
(tʃeəʳ )
Word forms: chairs , chairing , chaired
1. countable noun A1
A chair is a piece of furniture for one person to sit on. Chairs have a back and four legs.
He rose from his chair and walked to the window.
2. countable noun [usually singular]
At a university, a chair is the post of professor.
He has been appointed to the chair of sociology at Southampton University. [+ of/in]
He gave London University £600,000 to establish a chair in Islamic art.
3. countable noun [usually singular] B2
The person who is the chair of a committee or meeting is the person in charge of it.
She shared her concerns with the chair of the church's finance council. [+ of]
4. verb B2
If you chair a meeting or a committee, you are the person in charge of it.
He was about to chair a meeting in Venice of E.U. foreign ministers. [VERB noun]
5. singular noun
The chair is the same as the electric chair. [US]
6. be in the chair/take the chair phrase [VERB inflects]
If you are in the chair or take the chair at a meeting, you are the person in charge of it.
In the chair was Morien Morgan.
Wheeler took the chair of this sub-committee.
Finance Ministers are meeting today with Britain in the chair.
Image of chair
© 01/05/2018, Shutterstock
Collocations:
chair a commission chair a committee chair a meeting chair leg chair seat comfortable chair comfy chair department chair desk chair high-backed chair kitchen chair leather chair metal chair occupy a chair patio chair plastic chair pull up a chair reclining chair straight-backed chair uncomfortable chair upholster a chair upholstered chair wicker chair wooden chair
She will publish a report later this week calling for tighter controls on academies after chairing a commission that looked at how the policy was working.
Times, Sunday Times
He also chaired the commission.
Houston Chronicle
He chaired the commission that recommended/prepared the orthography revision of 1917.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Chairing the commission as a volunteer, he examined the relations between the central and local governments.
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Normally the archbishop in whose province the vacancy lies chairs the commission.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
At one point, he asked me to draft a list of members for a music minister search committee, then asked me to chair the committee.
Christianity Today
My role was to chair the committee that agreed the need for an independent panel.
Times, Sunday Times
If they chair a committee to restore low-income housing or are speaking at a district gathering, the community should know.
Christianity Today
Given the limited number of council members, nearly every member of the council has, in effect, the opportunity to chair a committee.
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He was elected unanimously by the 24 member states to chair the committee responsible for coordinating the activities of the bilateral donors.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
She was also not sufficiently qualified to chair the meeting, which lasted only 20 minutes.
The Sun
The leader of the committee was not present because of a prior work commitment and had appointed a committee member to chair the meeting.
Christianity Today
For example, get an extrovert to chair your meeting.
Times, Sunday Times
Similar mainstream examples include host, as in host a party, and chair, as in chair the meeting.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He chaired the meeting that devised the successful plan to bring the astronauts home by effectively using the lunar excursion module as a 'lifeboat'.
Times, Sunday Times
I fizzed with maternal joy and watched him knock himself over on a chair leg.
Times, Sunday Times
He can handle rugs and chair legs; whenever he bumps into anything he reverses and goes off in another direction.
Times, Sunday Times
The sound of wooden chair legs screeched against the hardwood floors.
Christianity Today
Clasp legs of chair with soles of feet as if trying to push both chair legs together.
The Sun
An undergound pump expels excess water into the garden, but other systems are less high-tech: they use yoghurt pots to protect chair legs.
Times, Sunday Times
She tried push-ups over the chair seat and an abdominal crunch which involved lifting her legs and bringing her knees to her chest while sitting on the chair.
The Sun
One can have a passenger or luggage on the chair seat.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
She would stitch away at her tapestry with great speed, making unusual cushions and chair seats for her home.
Times, Sunday Times
By the beginning of the 17th century chair seats were being padded, but this form of upholstery was still fairly basic.
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These pieces were incremental in perfecting her artistic ability and consisted of chair seats, bench covers, handbags and reproductions of paintings.
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Half the time it's hard enough convincing your boss that you don't actually spend all your time sitting in a comfortable chair surfing the internet.
Times, Sunday Times
What's better than a comfortable chair under a tree and a pile of books to read, the top one acting as a tea table?
Times, Sunday Times
Let's settle into the comfortable chair of orchestral rock together.
Times, Sunday Times
It also often means that you get the more comfortable chair.
Times, Sunday Times
He sits with his legs crossed in a comfortable chair, as if fully at ease with the universe and his place within it.
Smithsonian Mag
A lot of rooms have this green comfy chair - it is college standard issue.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
He was just a man in a silly coat who sat in a comfy chair while the players did all the work.
The Sun (2012)
You find them in local restaurants that have slipped into the comfy chair of least resistance or thought.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Not reading an email sent out by her department chair at 10:45 pm until the next morning.
The Times Literary Supplement
This included a stint as department chair from 1975 to 1979.
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He served as the department chair from 1987 to 1996.
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During his tenure as department chair, the department would change its name to food technology, a name it would keep until 1962.
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Advancement past the rank of professor typically involves administrative duties (e.g., department chair, dean, or provost) or selection for an honorary title or endowed chair.
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Don't worry: you don't have to shout the gospel from atop your desk chair.
Christianity Today
Each room contains a single bed, a double wardrobe and a desk with desk chair.
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His first novel was a hilarious, formally perfect and often brutal look at the world of office politics, redundancies and desk chairs.
Times, Sunday Times
Younger employees have found tipping out of their beds into their desk chairs depressing, especially living in confined flats or alone.
Times,Sunday Times
In his first book, the characters reached operatic heights over who had stolen whose desk chairs.
Times, Sunday Times
It has been produced in various styles depending on its assigned use, as a club chair, a high-backed chair or an auditorium chair.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Bald patients attached to drip-feeds of chemotherapy were settled in their high-backed chairs.
Times, Sunday Times
Think high-backed chairs, silver furniture, leaded-glass doors, mirrored friezes and melt-inthe-mouth meringues and shortbread.
Times, Sunday Times
High-backed chairs ensure privacy for those who don't want to be ogled while they eat and guests are encouraged not to dress up for dinner.
Times, Sunday Times
The precogs are kept in rigid position by metal bands, clamps and wiring, which keep them attached to special high-backed chairs.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In the evening, while I sagged feebly on a kitchen chair, she breaded cutlets, and sliced tomato and cucumber on to a glass dish.
LEARNING TO TALK: SHORT STORIES (2003)
She looked with disfavour at the blonde suite, and fetched a kitchen chair for herself.
IN REMEMBRANCE OF ROSE (2003)
Mrs Baker stumbled into a kitchen chair, her legs spread at odd angles, her voice quivering with rage.
ROSES ARE FOR THE RICH (2002)
An hour later I was sitting on an old kitchen chair, a Styrofoam cup of pretty bad coffee from a huge thermos in my hand.
C B GREENFIELD - A LITTLE MADNESS
The leather chair and stool add another texture, and the sofa has a sheepskin throw.
Times,Sunday Times
Our high-ceilinged bedroom had grey/ beige walls, a reclining leather chair and a panoramic view of the bus station (surprisingly quiet).
Times, Sunday Times
Perhaps the days of the ubiquitous leather chair are numbered.
Times, Sunday Times
She exhaled with a smile and fell back into the leather chair, her shoulders and face finally relaxed.
Times, Sunday Times
It's got the same desk, the same leather chair he used.
The Sun
She has decorated a battered metal chair with a large spider's web made of tiny beads.
Times, Sunday Times
Furniture was one ageing, chipped metal chair.
Times, Sunday Times
Offstage, he smiles a far-off smile and sits down on a folding metal chair.
Houston Chronicle
Then the bloke crashed a metal chair over his head, so that's two significant blows, one at the front, one at the back, causing massive brain injuries.
Times, Sunday Times
He was strapped to a metal chair heated to extreme temperatures.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Instead, the conductor challenges the best person to occupy the chair.
Christianity Today
He was director of the school from 1937 to 1957, although he continued to occupy his chair as well until 1954.
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He occupied the chair until his retirement in 1925.
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He occupied this chair for six years, making contributions to embryology.
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Initially he occupied the chair of drawing and then of landscape.
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I considered setting it to work on my garden wall, but decided to start small on a patio chair that was desperately in need of a new coat.
Times, Sunday Times
Put your clothes on and crawl through — whereupon you'll find a simple bar of patio chairs and a straw roof, balanced high on the cliffs above the sea.
Times, Sunday Times
Nearby was a fire pit cobbled out of stone, and around the empty pit were four patio chairs.
Globe and Mail
They usually comprise several round tables, plastic patio chairs, and a restaurant setup consisting of a display table for the prepared items and a long metal trough used for barbecueing.
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He had a vision of Cheryl, slumped on a plastic chair in the clinic waiting-room, riffling through a dog-eared colour supplement.
FORESTS OF THE NIGHT
Patrick is outraged, helpless, stuck in his blue plastic chair in the wooden dock, palsied by impotent anger.
THE CHEEK PERFORATION DANCE (2002)
Lying in the plastic chair, he wondered about the rigours of human existence, and about the people he had been.
SOMEWHERE EAST OF LIFE (2002)
I can wait ten years and then pull the chair.
Times, Sunday Times
This season, expect some famous faces to pull up a chair.
The Sun
Pull up a chair, sit close, no need to be alarmed.
Times, Sunday Times
If this week's celeb version left you with an appetite for more, pull up a chair for the 'normal' show.
The Sun
Now pull up a chair and start crafting your finest insults to shout at the telly!
The Sun
Lie on a blanket or use a reclining chair to get comfortable while you are looking up at the sky.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
He called it the booth to himself, though it was actually a reclining chair.
A Plague of Angels (1993)
I find it hard to sit comfortably but a proper reclining chair is ridiculously expensive.
The Sun (2010)
He leaned back in his reclining chair, gripping its arms firmly, and wondered what was happening to him.
Christianity Today (2000)
Sit erect but relaxed in a straight-backed chair with your feet flat on the floor.
The Sun
The recliner said nothing to her, but it intimidated her all the same, and so she'd taken a seat in a straight-backed chair just under the single shaded window.
Times, Sunday Times
This $30,000 six-foot tall bronze lady sits within a straight-backed chair atop a base of pink granite.
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On the ground floor, the tall, wide front door opened into an entrada, with its few straight-backed chairs for guests.
Times, Sunday Times
There are some straight-backed chairs and two tables.
Times, Sunday Times
He sits off to the side on a straight-backed, uncomfortable chair.
Times, Sunday Times
I wouldn't really want to put on a suit and sit down on an uncomfortable chair and be very upright and not make a single sound.
The Sun
He sits on a hard, uncomfortable chair which causes him pain.
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Diners also expect the space to be rough and ready, and will forgive uncomfortable chairs and wobbly tables.
Times, Sunday Times
We're sitting on tall, rather uncomfortable chairs, facing each other across a high, heavily lacquered table.
Times, Sunday Times
Two matching sofas and two chairs upholstered in a different but toning colour works much better.
Times, Sunday Times
She helps herself to a heavy chair upholstered in lavish damask.
Times, Sunday Times
A foyer was filled with couches and low-slung lounge chairs upholstered in bright colours, table football and bumper-pool tables, and three flat-top arcade machines where employees were taking meetings.
Times,Sunday Times
The painting however depicts the chair upholstered in crimson, not blue, showing the original color used for the room.
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The hall has a capacity of 226 spectators on chairs upholstered in red and gold.
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Anne dropped back into the dent of her upholstered chair, traumatized.
THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS (2002)
He sat there on the arm of the green upholstered chair with the puppy on his lap, not knowing what to do next.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
An elderly man sat in a dingy upholstered chair in the front lobby, where he had probably been sitting for the past 30 years.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
The emerald green upholstered chair is an old favourite.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Dama sat in a large wicker chair on a verandah in front of his living room watching the painters.
INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS (2002)
There followed a brown wicker chair, a mattress and lamps of minimalist Scandinavian design.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
I climb into the wicker chair that hangs from the ceiling of my veranda and listen.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Or maybe a wicker chair, more comfortable.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
He heard the creak of the wicker chair and his mother went quickly out of the room.
Richard Temple
The sound of wooden chair legs screeched against the hardwood floors.
Christianity Today (2000)
Food had been served to them earlier by an orderly grown accustomed to glacial silences, split only by the odd cracking of a wooden chair.
THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS (2002)
You put a wooden chair out at night and in the morning it was a shrub.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
She sat on a wooden chair beside a patch of lilies.
The Crossing-Place (1993)
Translations:
Chinese: 椅子, 担任会议、委员会 主席
Japanese: 椅子, 議長を務める
- competing theories
- competing versions of
- competing visions
- competition
- competition arena
- competition entrant
- competition entry
- competition heats up
- competition inquiry
- competition is tough
- competition law
- competition level
- competition policy
- competition regulations
- competition regulator
- competition venue
- competition winner
- competitive
- competitive action
- competitive arena
- competitive athlete
- competitive athletics
- competitive atmosphere
- competitive auction
- competitive balance