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Chair of state   /tʃɛr əv steɪt/   Listen
Chair of state

noun
1.
A ceremonial chair for an exalted or powerful person.






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"Chair of state" Quotes from Famous Books



... discussed. In a little debating society, when a boy, I took the ground that sex neither qualified nor disqualified for the discharge of any functions, mental, moral, or spiritual: that there is no reason why woman should not make laws, administer justice, sit in the chair of State, plead at the Bar, or in the pulpit, if she has the qualifications, just as much as man. What I advocated in boyhood, I advocate now—that woman, in every particular, shares, equally with man, rights and responsibilities. Now that I have made this statement of my creed on ...
— The Grimke Sisters - Sarah and Angelina Grimke: The First American Women Advocates of - Abolition and Woman's Rights • Catherine H. Birney

... several of the old frequenters of the tavern at their usual posts, and seated in their usual places; but one was missing, the great Ramm Rapelye, who for many years had filled the chair of state. His place was supplied by a stranger, who seemed, however, completely at home in the chair and the tavern. He was rather under-size, but deep-chested, square, and muscular. His broad shoulders, double joints, and ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... your schooner," began Denham, sitting down in his chair of state and eyeing the seaman sternly. Bax returned the gaze so much more sternly that Denham felt disconcerted but did not allow his feelings ...
— The Lifeboat • R.M. Ballantyne

... oracular Sibyls of our day, who, in my humble opinion, are the legitimate inheritors and preservers of the ancient science of divination. This much is certain, that Governor Stuyvesant succeeded to the chair of state at a turbulent period, when foes thronged and threatened from without, when anarchy and stiff-necked opposition reigned rampant within; when the authority of their High Mightinesses the Lords States General, though supported ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... century found a secret society in existence known as the "Triads," whose avowed object was the expulsion of the Manchus and the restoration of the Mings. In 1803 the emperor Kiaking was attacked in open day while being carried in a chair of state through the streets of Peking. He was saved by his attendants, several ...
— Forty Years in South China - The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D. • Rev. John Gerardus Fagg

... solemn figures behind them. Madam, as usual, dominated the scene. Her portrait gazed in portentously from the hall; her marble bust gleamed from a distant corner; and she herself, the most resplendent person present, sat in a chair of state placed like a proscenium-box, and ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice

... of arms going before them), proceeded to the south side of the theatre, and repeated the same words; and from thence to the west, and lastly to the north side of the theatre, in like manner: the king standing all this while by his chair of state, toward the east side of the theatre, and turning his face to the several sides of the theatre, at such time as the archbishop at every of them spake to the people. At every of which the people signified their willingness ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 237, May 13, 1854 • Various

... most fantastically clipped screened from observation the fairy spot. Damaris, slowly entering, became at once the spirit of the place. She paced the fountain's grassy rim to a rustic seat and took it for her chair of state, from which for a while, with her white hands behind her head, she watched the silver spray and the blue midsummer sky. A lark sang, but so high in the blue that its joyous note jarred not the languor ...
— Sir Mortimer • Mary Johnston

... he dealt with the presents offered him by the king of Iberia, who sent him a bedstead, table, and a chair of state, all of gold, desiring him to accept of them; but he delivered them all into the custody of the public treasurers, for the use ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... some individual at least as long as himself, and placed the same in the hands of Mr Tappertit; who, receiving it as a sceptre and staff of authority, cocked his three-cornered hat fiercely on the top of his head, and mounted a large table, whereon a chair of state, cheerfully ornamented with a couple of skulls, was ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... Burghley was swept. The Queen and the Prince planted an oak and a lime, not far from Queen Elizabeth's lime. The festivities ended with a great dinner and ball, at which the Queen did not dance. Most of the company passed before her chair of State on the dais, as they do at ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, (Victoria) Vol II • Sarah Tytler

... end of the long apartment, on a chair of state, and beneath a canopy, sat Charles. He was evidently much disturbed, and looked eagerly at the new-comers, especially at Leonard, expecting to find him the bearer of some important intelligence. On the right of the king, and near an open window, which, looking ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... blue and gold, and lie on tables weighed with words familiar in all mouths. Patrista, who, thirsting for his country's good, has been, perforce, content to see all others rise and sway the crowd, while he has toiled in vain, shall shake the nation with his eloquence, and from his chair of state, whence go abroad the statutes he has framed, shall read again his earlier works, now rescued from the past to teach the young. Reporters on his words shall hang, from every window shall his sapient visage smile, and even the London Times ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 • Various

... "smartest nation in all creation"—a fact which John Bull pretends to disregard, and, like a traveller lost in the woods, whistles every now and then, to keep his courage up. In these days, when his great captains glide into the affections of the people, and thence into the chair of state, it were well to remember the Italian proverb, Il sangue del soldato fa grande il capitano, which, being interpreted, means, "The blood of the soldier makes the glory ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... himself a great palace o'-chum on the summit of the rock To-tau-kon-nu'-la, and had his great chair of state a little west of his palace, where on all festival occasions he could overlook and talk to the great multitude below; and the remains of this chair ...
— Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity - Their History, Customs and Traditions • Galen Clark

... If they seem but the echo of your own long-cherished purposes and habits, I need not on that account regret the course my remarks have taken. Permit me to congratulate myself, and my fellow-citizens, on the occupancy of the chair of State by one who has proved himself in various situations an upright politician and a Christian statesman; and let me hope that the year of public service on which you have now entered may still further illustrate the force of moral principle, and ...
— The Religion of Politics • Ezra S. Gannett

... in gold lace and velvet—as how should such an earl wear anything but velvet and gold lace? His coronet is everywhere: on his footstool on which reposes one gouty toe turned out; on the sconces and looking-glasses; on the dogs; on his lordship's very crutches; on his great chair of state and the great baldaquin behind him; under which he sits pointing majestically to his pedigree, which shows that his race is sprung from the loins of William the Conqueror, and confronting the old alderman from ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... spectators who had ascended to these points of vantage. Everything was in readiness by the time night drew to a close and at daybreak Nero, wearing the triumphal garb and accompanied by the senate and the Pretorians, entered the Forum. He ascended the rostra and seated himself upon the chair of state. Next Tiridates and his suite passed through rows of heavy-armed men drawn up on each side, took their stand close to the rostra, and did obeisance to the emperor as they had done before. [Sidenote:—5—] At this a great roar went up which so alarmed Tiridates that for some moments ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio

... spread, and Annoure caused the King to be seated in a chair of state at her right hand, while squires and pages served him on bended knee. So when they had feasted, the King turned to the Lady Annoure and said courteously: "Lady, somewhat ye said of a request that ye would make. If there be aught in which I may pleasure you, I pray ...
— Stories from Le Morte D'Arthur and the Mabinogion • Beatrice Clay

... his mind with indignation and anguish. In addition to his other mortifications, it happened that the second day after his release from imprisonment was what the agents call "Gale day;" that is, the day upon which they get into their chair of state, as it were, and in all the insolence of office receive their rents, and give a general audience to the tenantry. Phil, indeed, even more than the father, looked forward to these days with an exultation of soul and a consciousness of authority, ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... olden feudal days in England meals were arranged in precisely the same way, as may be seen to-day in College Halls at the Universities or the London Temple. Here in the Monastery the raised dais at the end was occupied by the Igumen, seated on a chair of state; his most important monks were next him, then came the lower grades, and below the wooden salts sat the novices ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... and quickly," the officer said, as he threw himself into the arm-chair of state, being thoroughly tired. "In one hour's time we must be off. Therefore, John, bring nothing tough, for our stomachs are better than our teeth. A shilling per head is his Majesty's price, and half a crown for officers. Now a gallon ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... ladies dressed in all their gorgeous splendour. Fans fluttered, feathers nodded, diamonds sparkled in all directions. Over all floated a strain of delicious dreamy music. At the end of the long room, up six red-carpeted steps was the Queen's golden chair of state. On it sat the Queen herself, smiling graciously. She was dressed in white and blazing with jewels, and she had a crown of gold upon ...
— More Tales in the Land of Nursery Rhyme • Ada M. Marzials

... whilst Dame Alice was still in power as the King's chastiser that we again find the royal child noticed as holding the opening of Parliament in 1425. Katherine entered the city in a chair of state, with her child sitting on her knee as before. But Henry was now four years old, and no longer needed to be held on Warwick's arm or placed upon his mother's lap. As soon then as he reached the west door of ...
— Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. In the ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... Upon his chair of state, the dwarf did not answer; professed not to hear. By the uncertain glimmer of torches and the flickering glow of the fire he was engaged in tracing a resemblance to himself in the central figure of the composition wrought in threads of silk—Momus, fool by patent to Jove, thrust from ...
— Under the Rose • Frederic Stewart Isham

... great hall; first the noblemen, then the senators, then the bridegroom between Bundt and Whitelocke, then the bride between two Graves, then the Queen and her Guards. Then the Queen presently took her chair of state; at her right-hand at a little distance sat the bride against her; at the Queen's left-hand sat the bridegroom, next to him Whitelocke, and then Bundt. After they were all sat, Bundt rose up and went towards the Queen, and spake in Swedish with a loud voice to this effect, as it was interpreted ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke

... complete armour fit, Their limbs more large and of a bigger size Than all the brats y-sprung [173] from Typhon's loins; Who, when they come unto their father's age, Will batter turrets with their manly fists;— Sit here upon this royal chair of state, And on thy head wear my imperial crown, Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine And all his captains bound ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part I. • Christopher Marlowe

... chief magistrates of ancient Rome were entitled to a sella curulis, or chair of state, which used to be placed in their chariots. Gell. III; 18. They were seated on it also at their tribunal on solemn occasions. Virgil makes old king ...
— The Ceremonies of the Holy-Week at Rome • Charles Michael Baggs

... Next after the chair of state came four young damsels of the highest rank, bearing the prince's betel-box, spittoon, fan, and swords. Then followed seventy other maidens, carrying reverently in both hands the vessels of pure gold, and all the insignia of rank and office proper to a prince of the ...
— The English Governess At The Siamese Court • Anna Harriette Leonowens

... priest having taken his seat on a chair of state, the candidate for knighthood knelt before him, and took the customary oaths to defend the holy church, to protect widows and orphans, etc. During this time the priests who stood round said prayers. Now one of the spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon was fastened on the heel ...
— A Visit to the Holy Land • Ida Pfeiffer

... oak table of enormous strength extended two-thirds of the length of the hall. At the end another "board," raised a foot higher, formed the letter T with the lower one; and in its centre, just opposite the junction, sat Sir Nicholas in a chair of state, surmounted by a canopy; on his right hand the Lady Sybil, on his left the hero of the night, ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake

... a prince's court, This crib His chair of state; The beasts are parcel of His pomp, The wooden ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... a chair of state, his face turned towards the rising sun, and began to speak like one who wishes to set his thoughts in order. "My chariots have rolled over the red soil of Syria, my horses have trampled the highways of Babylon and ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg

... the room was plainly furnished, but there was one exception—the chair in which the Earl sat. This was an old one, formerly the chair of state in which the old Barons his ancestors had presided at many a scene of wassail, with their retainers. It had been stuffed and new-covered to suit modern luxury, but the armorial bearings remained still ...
— Edward Barnett; a Neglected Child of South Carolina, Who Rose to Be a Peer of Great Britain,—and the Stormy Life of His Grandfather, Captain Williams • Tobias Aconite

... come! On that day, there is to be no extra sweeping, dusting, cleaning, cooking, no visiting, no receiving, no reading or writing, but all with one heart and soul are to wait upon her, intent to forward the great work which she graciously affords a day's leisure to direct. Seated in her chair of state, with her well-worn cushion bristling with pins and needles at her side, her ready roll of patterns and her scissors, she hears, judges, and decides ex cathedra on the possible or not possible, in that important art on which depends the right presentation of the floral ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... the four young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state. ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge - or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls • Laura Lee Hope

... with a tremulous eagerness of welcome, which announced to the Sub-Prior an extreme agitation of spirits, and the utmost need of good counsel. There was neither mazer-dish nor standing-cup upon the little table, at the elbow of his huge chair of state; his beads alone lay there, and it seemed as if he had been telling them in his extremity of distress. Beside the beads was placed the mitre of the Abbot, of an antique form, and blazing with precious stones, and the rich and highly-embossed ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... Klugenstein. The year 1222 was drawing to a close. Far away up in the tallest of the castle's towers a single light glimmered. A secret council was being held there. The stern old lord of Klugenstein sat in a chair of state meditating. Presently he, said, with ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... class. We noted that, it being one of the things it was ever in order to note. No particular band of fighting men stood about that block of polished wood, that was essentially throne or chair of state. The village owned slender, bone or flint-headed lances, but these rested idly in corners. Upon occasion all or any might use them, but there was no evidence that those occasions came often. There was no body of troops, nor armor, ...
— 1492 • Mary Johnston

... in a dark, close box behind the chair of state is a humble, drab individual who, from time to time, applies his mouth to the wrong side of the filigreed hole and whispers things. If he were visible at all, he would look like the absurd prompter under the hood at the opera. He is not a famous person. ...
— The Joyful Heart • Robert Haven Schauffler

... ordered to dismiss The court, so made his last O yes! The goddess would no longer wait, But rising from her chair of state, Left all below at six and seven, Harnessed her doves, and ...
— The Battle of the Books - and Other Short Pieces • Jonathan Swift

... perfection of the flower, the more wretched and miserable he felt. He looked all around for some one to whom he might address only one question, but his eyes everywhere met strange faces, and the attention of all was directed towards the chair of state, on which the ...
— The Black Tulip • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)

... Gaston, "what means this? is there a tilt towards? This reminds me of the good old days, ere the Prince fell ill. The lists, the galleries, the ladies, the Prince's own chair of state, too! Oh, Sir Eustace, I could tear my hair that you cannot yet use ...
— The Lances of Lynwood • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the criminals, of whom there are usually several, being carried in open baskets in the following order:—Some spearmen, the malefactors, a few soldiers, a chair of state, bearing the ruler of the Naam-Hoi county, attended by equerries; and another chair of state, in which is seated the official who, after all is over, pays worship to the five protecting genii of Canton, a small temple to whom stands close ...
— The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither • Isabella L. Bird (Mrs. Bishop)

... members of the Consistory. This last apartment is hung with black, sprinkled with tears, "death's heads," "cross bones," and "skeletons." The throne is in the East, elevated by seven steps. On the throne is the chair of state, lined with black satin, flamed with red. Before the chair is a table covered with black satin, strewed with tears. On this cloth, in front, is a "death's head" and "cross bones;" over the "death's head" is the letter I; and under the "cross bones" is the letter M. On the table ...
— The Mysteries of Free Masonry - Containing All the Degrees of the Order Conferred in a Master's Lodge • William Morgan

... hers changed then! To judge from her look, she might have been entering the gates of Heaven. (A sorry Heaven, thought I, that gold and white leather could make betwixt them.) Her eyes glowed, and flashed, and danced, all at once: and she sat her down in a chair of state, and received the Seal in her own hands, ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... chair of state 'Neath the dais is gently elevate,— But his smile bespeaks no lordly pride: Sweet Edith sits by her loved sire's side, And five hundred guests, some free, some thrall, Sit by the tables along the wide hall, Each with his platter, and stout drink-horn,— They count on ...
— The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme • Thomas Cooper

... banquet composed of the viands found in the Royal kitchen and the wines found in the Royal cellars. The queen, who was a soubrette more noticeable for beauty than for cleanliness of person, garbed in Royal robes which she well became, and with a coronet upon her stately brow, was seated in a chair of state and received the most extravagant homage from her willing subjects, while groups of gamins, in the long crimson liveries of the Royal household, boisterously frolicked before the sans culotte ...
— Edmond Dantes • Edmund Flagg

... thorny Sorcerer in his chair of state, and when the Wizard saw him he began to laugh, uttering comical ...
— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz • L. Frank Baum.

... have been accommodated in it at a banquet.[F] This great room was fitted up for the trial. Seats were provided for both houses of Parliament; for the Commons were to be present as accusers, and the Lords as the court. There was, as usual, a chair of state, or throne, for the king, as a matter of form. There was also a private gallery, screened from the observation of the spectators, where the king and queen could sit and witness the proceedings. They attended ...
— Charles I - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... Empire the dead hero was long mourned and for many years the peasants believed that Frederick was not really dead, but was asleep in a cave in the mountains of Germany, with his gallant knights around him. He was supposed to be sitting in his chair of state, with the crown upon his head, his eyes half-closed in slumber, his beard as white as snow and so long that it reached ...
— Famous Men of The Middle Ages • John H. Haaren, LL.D. and A. B. Poland, Ph.D.

... PETER. Thus lucre's set in golden chair of state, When learning's bid stand by, and keeps aloof: This greedy humour fits my father's vein, Who gapes for nothing but ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various



Words linked to "Chair of state" :   throne, chair



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