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What is the difference between seat and chair?

seat | chair |

As nouns the difference between seat and chair

is that seat is something to be sat upon while chair is 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.

As verbs the difference between seat and chair

is that seat is to put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm while chair is to act as chairperson.

seat

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something to be sat upon.
  • # A place in which to sit.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • # The horizontal portion of a chair or other furniture designed for sitting.
  • # A piece of furniture made for sitting; e.g. a chair, stool or bench; any improvised place for sitting.
  • # The part of an object or individual (usually the buttocks) directly involved in sitting.
  • # The part of a piece of clothing (usually pants or trousers) covering the buttocks.
  • # (engineering) A part or surface on which another part or surface rests.
  • A location or site.
  • # (figurative) A membership in an organization, particularly a representative body.
  • # The location of a governing body.
  • #* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.}}
  • # (certain Commonwealth countries) An electoral district, especially for a national legislature.
  • # The place occupied by anything, or where any person or thing is situated or resides; a site.
  • #* Bible, (w) ii. 13
  • Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
  • #* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.
  • #* (1800-1859)
  • a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity
  • The starting point of a fire.
  • Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.
  • * (George Eliot) (1819-1880)
  • She had so good a seat and hand she might be trusted with any mount.

    Derived terms

    * bums in seats * seater/-seater * seat of government

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.
  • * Milton
  • From their foundations, loosening to and fro, / They plucked the seated hills.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}
  • To provide with places to sit.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • The guests were no sooner seated but they entered into a warm debate.
  • * (Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
  • He used to seat you on the piano and then, with vehement gestures and pirouettings, would argue the case. Not one word of the speech did you understand.
  • To request or direct one or more persons to sit.
  • Please seat the audience after the anthem and then introduce the first speaker.
  • To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.
  • Only half the delegates from the state were seated at the convention because the state held its primary too early.
    You have to be a member to be seated at the meeting. Guests are welcome to sit in the visitors section.
  • To assign the seats of.
  • to seat a church
  • To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thus high is King Richard seated .
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • They had seated themselves in New Guiana.
  • (obsolete) To rest; to lie down.
  • (Spenser)
  • To settle; to plant with inhabitants.
  • to seat a country
  • To put a seat or bottom in.
  • to seat a chair

    See also

    * county seat * seat cushion * seat of learning * seat of wisdom * sedentary * see * sit

    chair

    English

    Noun

    (en 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.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs' for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker arm' chairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair , and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • Chairperson.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1658-9, date=March 23, author=Thomas Burton, title=Diary
  • , passage=The Chair behaves himself like a Busby amongst so many school-boys
  • * {{quote-news, year=1887, date=September 5, work=The Times
  • , passage=It can hardly be conceived that the Chair would fail to gain the support of the House.}}
  • (music) The seating position of a particular musician in an orchestra.
  • (rail transport) Blocks that support and hold railroad track in position, and similar devices.
  • (chemistry) One of two possible conformers of cyclohexane rings (the other being boat), shaped roughly like a chair.
  • The electric chair.
  • A distinguished professorship at a university.
  • * '>citation
  • An iron block used on railways to support the rails and secure them to the sleepers.
  • A vehicle for one person; either a sedan borne upon poles, or a two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse; a gig.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • * (Alexander Pope)
  • Think what an equipage thou hast in air, / And view with scorn two pages and a chair .

    Derived terms

    * birthing chair * chairman * chairness * chairwoman * chairperson * armchair * deck chair * easy chair * first chair * flag chair * give someone the chair * high chair * musical chairs * rocking chair * tub chair * wheelchair * wing chair

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To act as chairperson.
  • Bob will chair tomorrow's meeting.
  • To carry someone in a seated position upon one's shoulders, especially in celebration or victory
  • * 1896 , , "To An Athlete Dying Young," in A Shropshire Lad ,
  • The time you won your town the race
    We chaired you through the marketplace.
  • (Wales, UK) To award a chair to the winning poet at a Welsh eisteddfod.
  • The poet was chaired at the national Eisteddfod.

    Statistics

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