Chair v.

[f. CHAIR sb.¹]

  1.  trans. To place or seat in a chair; esp. to install in a chair of authority.

1552 etc.  [see CHAIRED below].

1761.  Brit. Mag., II. 179. Chairing your speaker for the commons, when he is chosen by the house.

1850.  P. Crook, War of Hats, 52. A Guy Fawkes figure toiletted and chaired.

1877.  Tennyson, Harold, I. ii. (D.). And thou Chair’d in his place.

  b.  To place in a chair or on a seat, and carry aloft in triumph, as an honor to a favorite, a successful competitor, and formerly often to the successful candidate at a parliamentary election.

1761.  Brit. Mag., II. 179. The practice of chairing the candidate … still, I find, obtains among you.

1812.  Examiner, 18 Oct., 670/2. Were declared duly elected, and were chaired through the principal streets.

1812.  Amyot, Windham, I. 86. note.

1844.  Disraeli, Coningsby, V. ii. 192. The day the member was chaired.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. Tom … was chaired round the quadrangle, on one of the hall benches borne aloft by the eleven.

  2.  To carry or wheel in a chair.

1886.  J. Pendleton, Hist. Derbysh., 99. The bride, owing to her infirmities, had to be chaired to the altar.

  3.  To provide with a chair or chairs.

1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxvii. 324. The offices were … newly chaired.

1885.  [see CHAIRING below].

  Hence Chaired ppl. a., Chairing vbl. sb.

1552.  Huloet, Chayred or stalled, cathedratus.

1796.  Coleridge, Ode Depart. Year. From the chaired gods advancing, The Spirit of the Earth made reverence meet.

1797.  Holcroft, trans. Stolberg’s Trav. (ed. 2), H. lxii. 418, note. The chairing of a Westminster election.

1880.  Daily News, 18 Sept., 6/4. It was resolved … that all chaired bards be appointed honorary members.

1885.  Leisure Hour, Jan., 48/2. Seldom is a large building erected … without a visit to Wycombe … with a view to the chairing of it.

  Chair, obs. form of CHARE.

  Chair-: see CHAR-.