sitting

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪtɪŋ/

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• Rhymes: -ɪtɪŋ
• Hyphenation: sit‧ting

From Middle English sittyng, sittynge, equivalent to sit +‎ -ing. Cognate with Dutch zitting (“a sitting, session”), German Sitzung (“a sitting, session”), Swedish sittning (“a sitting, session”).

sitting (plural sittings)

1. A period during which one is seated for a specific purpose.

   Due to the sheer volume of guests, we had to have two sittings for the meal.

   The Queen had three sittings for her portrait.

2. A seance or other session with a medium or fortuneteller.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "It's not always easy to get him, and of course a small fee, a guinea I think, is usual, but if you wanted a sitting I could work it." "You think him genuine?" Atkinson shrugged his shoulders.

3. A special seat allotted to a seat-holder, at church, etc.
4. The part of the year in which judicial business is transacted.
5. A legislative session (in the sense of "meeting", not "period").
6. The incubation of eggs by a bird.
7. A clutch of eggs laid by a brooding bird.

   we have thirty-four chicks from eight sittings of eggs

8. Uninterrupted application to anything for a time; the period during which one continues at anything.

From Middle English sittinge, sittynge, variant of sittinde, sittende, sittande, from Old English sittende (“sitting”), from Proto-Germanic *sitjandz (“sitting”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”), equivalent to sit +‎ -ing. Cognate with West Frisian sittend (“sitting”), Dutch zittend (“sitting”), German sitzend (“sitting”), Swedish sittande (“sitting”), Icelandic sitjandi (“sitting”).

sitting

1. present participle and gerund of sit

• sitting pretty

sitting (not comparable)

1. Executed from a sitting position.
2. Occupying a specific official or legal position; incumbent.
   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

   • 2022 April 8, John Lichfield, “Get ready for a scary fortnight in French politics: a Le Pen presidency really is possible”, in The Guardian‎:

     It is an iron rule of French politics that sitting presidents are detested.

• “sitting”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Gittins

• sitjing

sitting f (definite singular sittinga, indefinite plural sittingar, definite plural sittingane)

1. the act of sitting

• “sitting” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.