sit

verb

1. (copulative, intransitive)To be in a position in which the upper body is upright and supported by the buttocks.

   “After a long day of walking, it was good just to sit and relax.”

   “You're finishing the chowder if you sit there (motionless) all evening!”

   “He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.”

   “This were as good as curds for our Jone, / When at a night we ſitten by the fire.”

   “So saying, she sate down at a little distance upon the bench on which Allan M‘Aulay was placed, and tuning her clairshach, a small harp, about thirty inches in height, she accompanied it with her voice.”

2. (intransitive)To move oneself into such a position.

   “I asked him to sit.”

3. (intransitive)To occupy a given position.

   “The dishes are still sitting on the table!”

   “The temple has sat atop that hill for centuries.”

   “Jim's pet parrot sat on his left shoulder.”

   “The Yellow Sea sits between the Korean Peninsula and China.”

4. (copulative, intransitive)To remain in a state of repose; to rest; to abide; to rest in any position or condition.

   “And Moses said to […] the children of Reuben, Shall your brothren go to war, and shall ye sit here?”

   “Like a demigod here sit I in the sky.”

5. To be a member of a deliberative body.

   “I currently sit on a standards committee.”

6. Of a legislative or, especially, a judicial body such as a court, to be in session.

   “In what city is the circuit court sitting for this session?”

7. To lie, rest, or bear; to press or weigh.

   “The calamity sits heavy on us.”

8. To be adjusted; to fit.

   “Your new coat sits well.”

   “This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, / Sits not so easy on me as you think.”

9. (intransitive)To be accepted or acceptable; to work.

   “How will this new contract sit with the workers?”

   “I don’t think it will sit well.”

   “The violence in these video games sits awkwardly with their stated aim of educating children.”

10. (causative, transitive)To cause to be seated or in a sitting posture; to furnish a seat to.

    “Sit him in front of the TV and he might watch for hours.”

11. (transitive)To accommodate in seats; to seat.

    “The dining room table sits eight comfortably.”

    “I sat me weary on a pillar's base, / And leaned against the shaft”

12. (US, ambitransitive)To babysit.

    “I'm going to sit for them on Thursday.”

    “I need to find someone to sit my kids on Friday evening for four hours.”

    “I saw […] Mrs. Turman, who sometimes sat Billy when Steff and I went out […]”

    “Sitting was a “quintessentially American experience,” Yasemin Besen-Cassino, a Montclair State University sociologist and the author of The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap, told me.”

13. (Australia, New-Zealand, UK, transitive)To take, to undergo or complete (an examination or test).
14. To cover and warm eggs for hatching, as a fowl; to brood; to incubate.

    “The partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not.”

15. To take a position for the purpose of having some artistic representation of oneself made, such as a picture or a bust.

    “I'm sitting for a painter this evening.”

16. To have position, as at the point blown from; to hold a relative position; to have direction.

    “like a good miller that knows how to grind, which way soever the wind sits”

    “Sits the wind in that quarter?”

17. (obsolete, transitive)To keep one's seat when faced with (a blow, attack); to endure, to put up with.

    “Louisa, who […] had but ill born the commencement of this conversation, could sit it no longer, and hastily throwing up the sash, complained of the intense heat of the room.”

noun

1. An act of sitting.
2. Subsidence of the roof of a coal mine.
3. (rare)An event, usually lasting one full day or more, where the primary goal is to sit in meditation.
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal)Clipping of situation.

   “The increasing scope of the disaster was relayed in short, terse sentences whose brevity does not conceal the unfolding nightmare. […] In mid-afternoon at 1600: “Sit is getting worse; need help badly,” “have considerable number of wounded that are unable to evacuate.””

5. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of special information tone.
6. (India, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of Special Investigation Team.
7. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of spontaneous ignition temperature.
8. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of sterile insect technique

name

1. A surname.