Chair

TO PUT IN THE CHAIR, phr. (cab-drivers’).—See quot.

  1864.  Social Science Review, I., 408. A Justice’s order is sufficient for the committal to prison of a cab hirer (driver) who will not or cannot pay…. Some hirers who become inured to prison discipline and prison fare get altogether hardened, and boast of the number of owners whom they have PUT IN THE CHAIR or in polite English neglected to pay.