sit verb – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

sit

sit down

▪

be seated

▪

take a seat

▪

perch

These words all mean to rest your weight on your bottom with your back straight, for example on a chair.

sit

to rest your weight on your bottom with your back straight, for example on a chair:

• May I sit here?

• Sit still, will you!

Sit

is usually used with an adverb or prepositional phrase to show where or how somebody sits, but sometimes another phrase or clause is used to show what somebody does while they are sitting:

We sat talking for hours.

to rest your weight on your bottom with your back straight, for example on a chair:

sit down/​sit yourself down

to move from a standing position to a sitting position:

• Please sit down.

• Come in and sit yourselves down.

to move from a standing position to a sitting position:

be seated

(

formal

) to be sitting:

• She was seated at the head of the table.

Be seated

is often used as a formal way of inviting somebody to sit down:

Please be seated.

) to be sitting:

take a seat

to sit down

Take a seat

is used especially as a polite way of inviting somebody to sit down:

Please take a seat.

perch

(

rather informal

) to sit on something, especially on the edge of something:

• She perched herself on the edge of the bed.

Perch

is always used with an adverb or prepositional phrase to show where somebody is perching.

) to sit on something, especially on the edge of something: