director's chair

American  

noun

1. a lightweight folding armchair with transversely crossed legs and having a canvas seat and back panel, as traditionally used by motion-picture directors.

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director's chair British  

noun

1. a light wooden folding chair with arm rests and a canvas seat and back

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Etymology

Origin of director's chair

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

A sleek modernist home with a single white director’s chair sits in the background with two slender palm trees rising into the light blue sky behind.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026

But you don’t have to play every role yourself—take the director’s chair, define the scenes, and choose your cast from the parts of yourself that serve the story you truly want to tell.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025

Between movie and TV shoots, Ehrenreich hopes to take a seat in the director’s chair for a reading himself.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 31, 2025

"I sat down in the director's chair, and I looked at Peter's face, and I just relaxed. I was just like, 'Thank God,'" Donovan tells me via FaceTime.

From Salon • Sep. 27, 2024

Sometimes he’d get up from his director’s chair and we’d make small talk about my writ­ing, the war, the day’s bargains.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini