chairs

Noun

chair (plural chairs)

1. An item of furniture used to sit on or in, comprising a seat, legs or wheels, back, and sometimes arm rests, for use by one person.
   • All I need to weather a snowstorm is hot coffee, a warm fire, a good book and a comfortable chair.
2. (usually, with-definite-article) The post or position of chairperson.
   • The meeting began, with Mr Roberts in the chair.
3. The seating position of a particular musician in an orchestra.
   • My violin teacher used to play first chair with the Boston Pops.
4. A cast-iron component used on railways to support bullhead rails and secure them to the sleepers.
   • The wooden or steel keys used to secure bull-head rails in their chairs are usually driven in the direction of the traffic, so that the effects of rail-creep may be made use of to wedge the keys more firmly, rather than to encourage them to drop out.1934 February, “The Why and The Wherefore: Chair-keys”, in Railway Magazine, page 139
5. (physical) One of two possible conformers of cyclohexane rings (the other being boat), shaped roughly like a chair.
6. A distinguished professorship at a university.
   • In 1928 [Martin] Heidegger succeeded [Edmund] Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg […]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

See all 14 meanings of chair