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Chair

.

When members of the House of Commons and other debaters call outChair,” they mean that the chairman is not properly supported, and his words not obeyed as they ought to be. Another form of the same expression is, “Pray support the chair.”

Groaning chair. The chair in which a woman is confined or sits afterwards to receive congratulations. Similarly “groaning cake” and “groaning cheese” are the cake and cheese which used to be provided in “Goose month.”

“For a nurse, the child to dandle,

Sugar, soap, spiced pots, and candle

A groaning chair, and eke a cradle.”


Poor Robin’s Almanack, 1676

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Cess
Cestui que Vie
Cestus
Cf
Chabouk
Chabouk or Chabuk
Chacun a son Goût
Chad-pennies
Chaff
Chair (The)
Chair
Chair-days
Chair of St. Peter (The)
Chalcedony [kalcedony]
Chaldee’s (Kal-dees)
Chalk
Chalk and Cheese
Chalks
Challenge to the Array (A)
Challenge to the Polls (A)
Challenging a Jury