seat

 
Pronunciation: /siːt/

noun

  • 1a thing made or used for sitting on, such as a chair or stool.
  • the roughly horizontal part of a chair, on which one’s weight rests directly.
  • a sitting place for a passenger in a vehicle or for a member of an audience: a fairly small theatre with 1,300 seats
  • 2a person’s buttocks.
  • the part of a garment that covers the buttocks.
  • a manner of sitting on a horse: he’s got the worst seat on a horse of anyone I’ve ever seen
  • 3a place in an elected legislative or other body: he lost his seat in the 1997 election
  • British a parliamentary constituency: a safe Labour seat in the North-East
  • 4a principal site or location: Parliament House was the seat of the Scots Parliament until the Union with England
  • Britishshort for country seat. Lamport Hall was the seat of the Isham family for over 400 years
  • 5a part of a machine that supports or guides another part: if the valve seat is damaged, it can be recut using a special tool

verb

[with object]
  • 1arrange for (someone) to sit somewhere: Owen seated his guests in the draughty baronial hall
  • (seat oneself or be seated) sit down: she invited them to be seated (as adjective seated) a dummy in a seated position
  • (of a vehicle or building) have seats for (a specified number of people): the jet seats up to 175 passengers
  • 2 [with object and adverbial of place] fit in position: upper boulders were simply seated in the interstices below

Phrases

take one's seat

start to take part in the business of an assembly after being elected: the House of Commons refused to allow him to take his seat although he had been duly elected

Derivatives

seatless

adjective

Origin:

Middle English (as a noun): from Old Norse sæti, from the Germanic base of sit. The verb dates from the late 16th century