chair

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A piece of furniture designed to accommodate one sitting or reclining person, providing support for the back and often the arms and typically standing on four legs.
• noun A seat of office, authority, or dignity, such as that of a bishop.
• noun An office or position of authority, such as a professorship.
• noun A person who holds an office or a position of authority, such as one who presides over a meeting or administers a department of instruction at a college; a chairperson.
• noun The position of a player in an orchestra.
• noun Slang The electric chair.
• noun A seat carried about on poles; a sedan chair.
• noun Any of several devices that serve to support or secure, such as a metal block that supports and holds railroad track in position.
• transitive verb To preside over as chairperson.
• transitive verb To install (someone) in a position of authority, especially as a presiding officer.
• transitive verb To carry (someone) high off the ground in a chair or in a seated position, especially as a tribute.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A seat having a back, and sometimes arms, intended for the accommodation of one person.
• noun A seat of office or authority: as, the chair of a judge, a professor, the presiding officer of a meeting or an assembly, etc.
• noun The incumbent of a seat of authority; a professor or the like; now, specifically, the chairman or presiding officer of an assemblage: as, to address or support the chair.
• noun One of four conventions connected with the eisteddfod of Wales, in which bardic matters are discussed and disciples trained in preparation for the great gorsedd or assembly.
• noun A sedan-chair.
• noun A two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse; a chaise; a gig.
• noun One of the iron blocks forming a kind of clutch by which, according to a common English system, the rails in a railroad are supported and secured to the sleepers or ties. A jointchair is a chair that secures the connection of two rails at their ends.
• noun A sort of low wheeled carriage.
• To place or carry in a chair; especially, carry publicly in a chair in triumph.
• To place in a chair of office; install; enthrone.
• noun The office or dignity of chief magistrate of a city or corporate town in England, especially of the City of London: as, an alderman below the chair is one who has not yet served as lord mayor.
• noun In glass-blowing, a seat of special construction in which the glass-blower sits, using the elongated and horizontal arms as supports for the pontil as he rolls it backward and forward; hence, the gang of men who work in and about such a chair.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A movable single seat with a back.
• noun An official seat, as of a chief magistrate or a judge, but esp. that of a professor; hence, the office itself.
• noun The presiding officer of an assembly; a chairman.
• noun A vehicle for one person; either a sedan borne upon poles, or two-wheeled carriage, drawn by one horse; a gig.
• noun An iron block used on railways to support the rails and secure them to the sleepers.
• noun days of repose and age.
• noun to elect as president, or as chairman of a meeting.
• noun to assume the position of president, or of chairman of a meeting.
• transitive verb To place in a chair.
• transitive verb engraving To carry publicly in a chair in triumph.
• transitive verb To function as chairperson of (a meeting, committee, etc.).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun 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.
• noun Chairperson.
• noun music The seating position of a particular musician in an orchestra.
• noun rail transport Blocks that support and hold railroad track in position, and similar devices.
• noun chemistry One of two possible conformers of cyclohexane rings (the other being boat), shaped roughly like a chair.
• noun slang, with the The electric chair.
• noun A professorship at a university
• verb To act as chairperson.
• verb To carry someone in a seated position upon one's shoulders, especially in celebration or victory
• verb Wales, UK To award a chair to the winning poet at a Welsh eisteddfod.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the position of professor
• noun a seat for one person, with a support for the back
• noun the officer who presides at the meetings of an organization
• verb act or preside as chair, as of an academic department in a university
• verb preside over