From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmusical chairsˌmusical ˈchairs noun [uncountable] 1 DGOa children’s game in which all the players must sit down on a chair when the music stops, but there is always one chair less than the number of people playing2 a situation in which people change jobs for no good reason or with no useful result Scott is now the finance director, after a long game of musical chairs among top management.
Examples from the Corpus
musical chairs• Buckley resigned in what was essentially a game of corporate musical chairs.• When the money goes away on a trading floor, it feels very like when the music stops in musical chairs.• The lute also provided the music for the game of musical chairs they played, with cushions laid in a row.• Since that time Kaunda has operated an unending game of musical chairs between tribal interest groups.• It is like a grown-up game of musical chairs.• Time passed and we played musical chairs, rotating as the numbers called out got closer to the ones we were assigned.• The band obliged with musical chairs, but after two of the dining room chairs were broken, they left off playing. 