"empty chair" meaning in English

See empty chair in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: empty chairs [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} empty chair (plural empty chairs)
  1. (psychotherapy) A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict Categories (topical): Psychotherapy
    Sense id: en-empty_chair-en-noun-x6ss~Yis Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 12 21 10 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 70 9 13 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 67 5 23 5
  2. A podium or chair left empty to highlight the absence of someone from a debate.
    Sense id: en-empty_chair-en-noun-XrclzBcs
  3. A position held by someone who is absent or otherwise ineffectual.
    Sense id: en-empty_chair-en-noun-pZT7O2ek

Verb

Forms: empty chairs [present, singular, third-person], empty chairing [participle, present], empty chaired [participle, past], empty chaired [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb}} empty chair (third-person singular simple present empty chairs, present participle empty chairing, simple past and past participle empty chaired)
  1. (transitive, debating) To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-empty_chair-en-verb-TzmR0t3f

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "empty chairs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "empty chair (plural empty chairs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Psychotherapy",
          "orig": "en:Psychotherapy",
          "parents": [
            "Psychology",
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 12 21 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "70 9 13 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "67 5 23 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict"
      ],
      "id": "en-empty_chair-en-noun-x6ss~Yis",
      "links": [
        [
          "psychotherapy",
          "psychotherapy"
        ],
        [
          "chair",
          "chair"
        ],
        [
          "client",
          "client"
        ],
        [
          "conflict",
          "conflict"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "psychotherapy",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(psychotherapy) A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016, Jon Kelly, “Inside the Trump-less Fox News Debate: V.F. Contributors Offer Analysis in Real-Time”, in Vanity Fair:",
          "text": "\"Megyn Kelly and The Donald's empty chair made Thursday’s debate the most absurd moment of the election cycle—and that's really saying something!\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A podium or chair left empty to highlight the absence of someone from a debate."
      ],
      "id": "en-empty_chair-en-noun-XrclzBcs"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A position held by someone who is absent or otherwise ineffectual."
      ],
      "id": "en-empty_chair-en-noun-pZT7O2ek"
    }
  ],
  "word": "empty chair"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "empty chairs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "empty chairing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "empty chaired",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "empty chaired",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2015, John Plunkett, TV debates: broadcasters will 'empty chair' leaders who refuse to take part The Guardian:",
          "text": "\"The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky have said they will “empty chair” any party leaders who refuse to take part in their revised proposals for TV election debates.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, May Bullman, “TV broadcasters considering 'empty chair' for Theresa May after she refuses to take part in leaders' debate”, in The Independent:",
          "text": "\"When later asked if Ms May would be “empty chaired”, a spokesperson also refused to rule out the possibility, saying the full plans would be announced in early May.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied."
      ],
      "id": "en-empty_chair-en-verb-TzmR0t3f",
      "qualifier": "debating",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, debating) To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "empty chair"
}
{
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
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    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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  "forms": [
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "en:Psychotherapy"
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        "A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict"
      ],
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          "psychotherapy",
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        "(psychotherapy) A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict"
      ]
    },
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016, Jon Kelly, “Inside the Trump-less Fox News Debate: V.F. Contributors Offer Analysis in Real-Time”, in Vanity Fair:",
          "text": "\"Megyn Kelly and The Donald's empty chair made Thursday’s debate the most absurd moment of the election cycle—and that's really saying something!\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A podium or chair left empty to highlight the absence of someone from a debate."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A position held by someone who is absent or otherwise ineffectual."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "empty chair"
}

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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
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    "English nouns",
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    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "empty chairs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
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    },
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      "form": "empty chairing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "empty chaired",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "empty chaired",
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        "past"
      ]
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  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
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          "ref": "2015, John Plunkett, TV debates: broadcasters will 'empty chair' leaders who refuse to take part The Guardian:",
          "text": "\"The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky have said they will “empty chair” any party leaders who refuse to take part in their revised proposals for TV election debates.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, May Bullman, “TV broadcasters considering 'empty chair' for Theresa May after she refuses to take part in leaders' debate”, in The Independent:",
          "text": "\"When later asked if Ms May would be “empty chaired”, a spokesperson also refused to rule out the possibility, saying the full plans would be announced in early May.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied."
      ],
      "qualifier": "debating",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, debating) To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
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}

Download raw JSONL data for empty chair meaning in English (3.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.