unchair

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See also: Unchair

English

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Etymology

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From un- +‎ chair.

Verb

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unchair (third-person singular simple present unchairs, present participle unchairing, simple past and past participle unchaired)

  1. (rare, transitive, intransitive) To get out of or to remove from a chair.
    • 1862, Edward Bulwer Lytton, A Strange Story, page 14:
      He watched till he was quite weary in the leg: and nothing came of it: except that Lankey and Big Abel rambled the wall:—then he unchaired himself and went to bed, making up his mind as well as he could to have to drag the Reservoir in the morning.
    • 1994, Donn Reed, The Home School Source Book, page 69:
      When I stand up, am I unchaired?
    • 2007, Henry Petroski, Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design, page 159:
      To adjust the back tension required a similar unchairing to get at the knob behind.
  2. (figurative, transitive) To take away someone's status and authority, especially if that status and authority is represented by a chair such as a throne or an academic chair; unseat.
    • 1672, Mathias Prideaux, An Easy and Compendious Introduction for Reading All Sorts of Histories:
      For the setling of Pope Innocent the 2, whom the Romans had violently unchaired, he marches to Rome, soon rights all tha was amisse, is Crowned by the reestablisht Pope, whic as a transcendent accident is pictured on a wall with these subscribed verses:
    • 1863, M. A. Wallace, Well! Well!: A Tale, Founded on Fact, page 181:
      Mary's tact at braiding hair, and Mary's bright gold chain, and Mary's success in making a portrait of Julia, which she has just completed, have blunted thy poisoned arrows, and have fairly unchaired thee. Come down, then, from they icy throne, saucy, viperish old maid!
    • 2020, Carlana Van Houten, Music of the Soul: Prelude:
      How could she restore the faith of the council, or at the very least keep from being unchaired or made a puppet?
    • 2022, Owen Dudley Edwards, Our Nations and Nationalisms:
      The Court included senior judges and tried to have him unchaired by a High Court action which they lost.