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 new consul, accompanied by lictors, left his house and went in solemn procession to the Capitoline, where he took his place on the curule chair, and then sacrificed to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Akrigg, Mark Bear

And for the second time that day in stalked the Countess, and sat down on the curule chair which Mistress Underdone set for her, looking like a judge, and a very stern one, too.

From A Forgotten Hero Not for Him by Holt, Emily Sarah

Consuls Madisonius and Monrovious left the seat of office, and Consuls Johannes Quincius, and Andreas, and Martinus, and the rest, followed in their turn, until the good Abraham sat in the curule chair.

From Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes by Brown, E. E.

Than Timoleon's arms require, And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John