All 4 Uses

dais
in
The Color of Water
(Auto-generated)

Oh, that's all right now..." murmured my godfather, Deacon McNair, from his seat on the dais next to the minister, while Mommy twitched in her seat watching Billy, her face reddening.†
Chpt 6

dais = raised platform
At the moment, the lady who helped Jesus Christ shepherd Rev. McBride's children to adulthood-and the surviving founder of the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church-is sitting at the end of a long table on the dais, the only white person in the room, wearing a blue print dress and holding my two-year-old daughter, Azure, in her lap.†
Chpt 24
So she gathered a few donations from my siblings and came to the dinner, sitting at the end of the dais.†
Chpt 24 *
After a while the young minister mounts the dais and works the crowd like a warm-up comedian.†
Chpt 24

Definitions:

(1) (dais)
a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to people on it
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)