electric chair

noun

|Updated on: 7 Aug 2018

Definition of electric chair

1 : a chair used in legal electrocution

2 : the penalty of death by electrocution

See electric chair defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of electric chair from the Web

The state’s last execution took place in 1997, using the electric chair.

— Washington Post, "Nebraska sets execution date for longest-serving inmate," 5 July 2018
The last scene still provokes me: the character sits at the end of the stage, hair shaved off, strapped down to the electric chair crying out to anyone to help her.

— kt hawbaker, Chicago Reader, "What were you watching, reading, or listening to when you first came out?," 15 June 2018
Neelley originally had been sentenced to the electric chair for the slaying of 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican, but had her death sentence commuted, setting off a battle over her possible parole eligibility.

— kim chandler, Fox News, "No parole for woman in Georgia teen's slaying in Alabama," 23 May 2018
These retirees are reshaping local economies, boosting everything from tax revenues to restaurant receipts to sales of electric chair lifts for the elderly.

— cameron mcwhirter, WSJ, "Forget Florida: More Northern Retirees Head to Appalachia," 15 May 2018
Some priests and nuns at the Catholic schools were involved in the most depraved abuses, including at an Ontario school where students were shocked on a homemade electric chair.

— ian austen and jason horowitz, New York Times, "A Pope Given to Apologies Has Nothing for Indigenous Canada," 23 Apr. 2018
The push for change comes because lethal injection, introduced 40 years ago as more efficient and humane than the electric chair or gas chamber, has not met that promise.

— new york times, BostonGlobe.com, "States turn to an unproven method of execution: nitrogen gas," 8 May 2018
Cohn rants at one point, about having privately lobbied the judge Irving Kaufman to send Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair.

— frank rich, Daily Intelligencer, "The Original Donald Trump," 29 Apr. 2018
Alabama carries out executions by lethal injection unless an inmate requests the electric chair.

— CBS News, "Alabama inmate endured "torture" during botched execution, attorney says," 5 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'electric chair.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.