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

See Examples For:

curule chair

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 principal part of the procession, of course, was the consuls in their curule chair, preceded by the lictors bearing the fasces, or bundles of rods and axes.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 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

The Countess sat down in the low curule chair beside her bed, and drew her daughter close.

From Earl Hubert's Daughter The Polishing of the Pearl - A Tale of the 13th Century by Holt, Emily Sarah

This morning he appointed me regent head of the house, and delivered me the fasces and curule chair.

From Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter by Carlyle, Thomas