seat

From Middle English sete, from Old English sǣte, possibly from (or simply cognate with) Old Norse sæti (“seat”), both from Proto-Germanic *sētiją (“seat”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”); compare Old English set (“seat”).

Sense 2 (“location or site”) is probably derived from Old English sǣte (“house”), which is related to Old High German sāza (“sedan, seat, domicile”).

• IPA^(key): /siːt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt
• Hyphenation: seat

seat (plural seats)

1. Something to be sat upon.
   1. A place in which to sit.

      There are two hundred seats in this classroom.

      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

        The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

      • 2019 October, “South Wales open access bid”, in Modern Railways, page 15:

        […] Grand Union proposes making a seat part of the price of a ticket, with 50% refunds for those travelling for longer than 30 minutes unable to obtain a seat.

   2. The horizontal portion of a chair or other furniture designed for sitting.

      He sat on the arm of the chair rather than the seat, which always annoyed his mother.

      the seat of a saddle

   3. A piece of furniture made for sitting, such as a chair, stool, or bench; any improvised place for sitting.

      She pulled the seat from under the table to allow him to sit down.

      1. (aviation, military, slang) An ejection seat.

         Hey, fighter boy, our radar's putting out enough energy to launch your seat from this distance!

   4. The part of an object or individual (usually the buttocks) directly involved in sitting.

      Instead of saying "sit down", she said "place your seat on this chair".

   5. The part of a piece of clothing (usually pants or trousers) covering the buttocks.
      • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎^[1]:

        Several pressmen have nearly lost their lives, to say nothing of the seats of their trousers, from these creatures.

      • 2006 July 20, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):

        I love these new biker pants I bought! There's padding in the seat to protect my rear end.

      The seat of these trousers is almost worn through.

   6. (engineering) A part or surface on which another part or surface rests.

      The seat of the valve had become corroded.

3. A location or site.
   1. (figuratively) A membership in an organization, particularly a representative body.

      Our neighbor has a seat at the stock exchange and in congress.

   2. The location of a governing body.

      Washington D.C. is the seat of the U.S. government.

      • 1963, Henry G. Schwarz, Policies and Administration of Minority Areas in Northwest China and Inner Mongolia, 1949-1959‎^[2], volume 2, →OCLC, page 338:

        The K'o-tzu-lo-su Kirghiz chou bordered on the K'o-shih chuan-ch'ü and its seat at A-t'u-shih was only twenty-five kilometers from K'o-shih shih.

      • 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

        But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.

   3. (certain Commonwealth countries) An electoral district, especially for a national legislature.
   4. A temporary residence, such as a country home or a hunting lodge.
      • 1806, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England:

        A man of fortune, who lives in London, may, in plays, operas, routs, assemblies, French cookery, French sauces, and French wines, spend as much yearly, as he could do, were he to live in the most hospitable manner at his seat in the country.

   5. The place occupied by anything, or where any person, thing or quality is situated or resides; a site.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 2:13:

        Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.

      • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

        He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.

      • 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

        a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity

      • 1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XVII, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:

        I stopped taking the sweets and condiments I had got from home. The mind having taken a different turn, the fondness for condiments wore away, and I now relished the boiled spinach which in Richmond tasted insipid, cooked without condiments. Many such experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind.

   6. (law, England and Wales) One of a series of departmental placements given to a trainee solicitor as part of their training contract.
   7. (historical) Any of several autonomous regions in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.
4. The starting point of a fire.
5. Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.
   • 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     She had so good a seat and hand she might be trusted with any mount.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 85:

     George was a perfect picture on horseback; he had a light, firm seat, and seemed as if he were a part of his horse, and was only happy when away in the saddle for hours together, mustering cattle or tracking a missing horse.

seat (third-person singular simple present seats, present participle seating, simple past and past participle seated)

1. (transitive) To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.

   Be sure to seat the gasket properly before attaching the cover.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     From their foundations, loosening to and fro, / They plucked the seated hills.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

2. (transitive) To provide with a place to sit.

   This classroom seats two hundred students.

   The waiter seated us and asked what we would like to drink.

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies:

     The guests were no sooner seated but they entered into a warm debate.

   • 1887, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage:

     He used to seat you on the piano and then, with vehement gestures and pirouettings, would argue the case. Not one word of the speech did you understand.

   • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 755:

     The older Jungfrau locomotives are of 330 h.p. only, but can push two coaches seating a total of 80 passengers up the 1 in 4 at 4 m.p.h.

3. (transitive) To request or direct one or more persons to sit.

   Please seat the audience after the anthem and then introduce the first speaker.

4. (transitive, legislature) To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.

   Only half the delegates from the state were seated at the convention because the state held its primary too early.

   You have to be a member to be seated at the meeting. Guests are welcome to sit in the visitors section.

5. (transitive) To assign the seats of.

   to seat a church

6. (transitive) To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     Thus high […] is King Richard seated.

   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:

     They had seated themselves in Nova Guiana.

7. (obsolete, intransitive) To rest; to lie down.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The folds, where sheepe at night doe seat.

8. To settle; to plant with inhabitants.

   to seat a country

   • 1747, William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia:

     The Plantations, for the most Part, are high and pleasantly seated

9. (transitive) To put a seat or bottom in.

   to seat a chair

• seat down
• seat out
• seated (adjective)
• seating (noun)
• unseat

• seat of learning
• seat of wisdom
• seat of honor
• sedentary
• see
• sit

• AEST, ESTA, East, TEAs, east, eats, etas, sate, saté, seta, tase, teas

• set (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader)
• siat (Sursilvan)

From Latin septem, from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥.

seat

1. (Sutsilvan) seven