▪ I. chairman, n.
(ˈtʃɛəmən)
1. a. The occupier of a chair of authority; spec. the person who is chosen to preside over a meeting, to conduct its proceedings, and who occupies the chair or seat provided for this function.
| 1654 Trapp Comm. Job xxix. 25, I sate chief, and was Chair-man. 1660–1 Pepys Diary 22 Jan., To come..to this place..where Sir G. Downing (my late master) was chaire⁓man. 1697 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 254 This day the parliament mett here, the earl of Oxford chairman. 1857 Toulm. Smith Parish 58 It is the duty of the chairman, immediately on taking the chair, to cause the minutes of the preceding meeting to be read. |
b. The member of a corporate body appointed or elected to preside at its meetings, and in general to exercise the chief authority in the conduct of its affairs; the president.
Chairman of Committees: in either House of Parliament the member appointed to preside over it whenever it resolves itself into Committee.
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Companies, East India, The directors are twenty-four in number, including the chairman and deputy-chairman. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 291 The committee..on factory employment, of which Mr. Sadler was the mover and chairman. 1887 Morley Crit. Misc. III. 306 The chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mod. Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works. |
c. A master of ceremonies (see quot. 1951).
| 1836 Dickens Astley's in Sk. Boz I. 312 It requires no great exercise of imagination to identify..the comic singer with the public-house chairman. 1951 Oxf. Compan. Theatre 119/2 Chairman, an important feature of the early music-hall... He sat at the head of a table in front of the footlights, with his back to the stage... He announced the ‘turns’ and kept the somewhat unruly audience in order. 1970 Radio Times 16 Apr. 39/1 The Good Old Days Old-Time Music-Hall..Chairman Leonard Sachs. |
2. a. One whose occupation it is to carry persons in chairs or chair-like conveyances; spec. the two men who carried a sedan-chair.
| 1682 Lond. Gaz. No. 1683/4 A tall Blackamore..in a Green Doublet and Breeches, with a large Chairmans Coat of the same colour. 1703 Ibid. 3942/3 Twenty Chairmen, with Sedans. 1721 Cibber Lady's Last St. v, Chair, Chair! (Enter a Chairman) Here: Who calls Chair? 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 113 ¶6 Disputing for sixpence with a chairman. 1833 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 46 §113 The misbehaviour of coachmen, drivers, chairmen, carters, and porters. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. 161 When ladies' chairmen jostled each other on the pavement. |
b. One who wheels a Bath-chair.
| 1766 Anstey Bath Guide i. 115 But soft—my Chairman's at the Door. 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xvi, A Bath chair-man. 1869 Daily Tel. 18 Aug., The invalids..in their Bath chairs..The chairmen..are an honest, genial, hard-working set of fellows. |
▪ II. chairman, v.
(ˈtʃɛəmən)
[f. the n.]
trans. To preside over (a meeting) as chairman; = chair v. 1 d.
| 1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 11 Oct. 4/1 We refused to attend the meeting to be chairmanned by Sir William. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 29 Jan. 2/3 The firm Which is chairman'd by Masham at Manningham! 1904 F. Lynde Grafters xxiii. 293 It was late in the afternoon..that the Federative Council sent its committee, chairmaned by Engineer Scott, to interview the ex-general manager. |