Definition of Musical chairs

1. Noun. A child's game in which players march to music around a group of chairs that contains one chair less than the number of players; when the music abruptly stops the players scramble to sit and the player who does not find a chair is eliminated; then a chair is removed and the march resumes until only the winner is seated.

Exact synonyms: Going To Jerusalem
Generic synonyms: Child's Game

2. Noun. A rearrangement that has no practical effect or significance. "Shareholders don't want the company playing musical chairs with their investment"
Generic synonyms: Rearrangement

Definition of Musical chairs

1. Noun. (games) A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated. ¹

2. Noun. (figuratively) Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Musical Chairs

music theory
music therapies
music therapy
music to someone's ears
music video
music videos
musica ficta
musical
musical accompaniment
musical agraphia
musical alexia
musical arrangement
musical bow
musical box
musical boxes
musical chairs (current term)
musical comedy
musical composition
musical drama
musical genre
musical group
musical harmony
musical instrument
musical instrument digital interface
musical instruments
musical interval
musical intervals
musical mode
musical murmur
musical notation

Literary usage of Musical chairs

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Conversational Openings and Endings: Some Hints for Playing the Game of by Florence Eveleen Eleanore Olliffe Bell (1899)
"THE MUSICAL PARTY, OR UNmusical chairs This is a variation of the well-known game of musical chairs, and can be played in two ways. But whereas in Musical ..."

2. Cassell's Complete Book of Sports and Pastimes: Being a Compendium of Out by Cassell & Co, Cassell (London) (1896)
"Hark from the tombs a doleful sound ; Dear, dear, what can the matter be ? Shake the forum round and round, Come to the sunset tree. musical chairs. ..."

3. Money making and merry making entertainments by Elizabeth Jane Rook (1903)
"musical chairs Have one chair less than there are people, the chairs standing in two rows back to back. . A lady presides at the piano and as she plays, ..."

4. The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women (1912)
"But Mary Glenister refused—hastily, rudely even, Godfrey, unaccustomed to abruptness, thought. " You do not care for ' musical chairs ' ? ..."

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