curule chair

American  

noun

1. (in ancient Rome) a folding seat with curved legs and no back, often ornamented with ivory, used only by certain high officials.

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curule chair British  

noun

1. an upholstered folding seat with curved legs used by the highest civil officials of ancient Rome

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Etymology

Origin of curule chair

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

The solemn, awful, inexorable literary Rhadamanthus, the dread Quarterly Review itself, sitting imposingly on its curule chair in ambrosial bigwig and high-heeled shoes, promulgated edicts against the new-fangled invention.

From Time Magazine Archive

The characteristic Roman chairs were of marble, also adorned with sphinxes; the curule chair was originally very similar in form to the modern folding chair, but eventually received a good deal of ornament.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various

That Wen hight Nonius sits in curule chair, For Consulship Vatinius false doth swear; What is't, Catullus?

From The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

The legend that this was the curule chair of the senator Pudens is necessarily apocryphal.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various

A curule chair not being just then in the monastery, Heribald pushed a huge oak stem towards the gate which led into the court-yard.

From Ekkehard. Vol. I (of II) A Tale of the Tenth Century by Scheffel, Joseph Victor von