anxious seat

[angk-shuhs seet, ang-]

noun

1. Also called anxious bench. Chiefly North Atlantic States and Southern and South Midland U.S.,  a seat reserved at a revival meeting for those troubled by conscience and eager for spiritual assistance.

2. a state of anxiety, especially about the outcome of a vote, negotiation, etc..

   Strikers have been in the anxious seat for the last three days.

Word History and Origins

Origin of anxious seat¹

An Americanism dating back to 1810–20

Example Sentences

The program of the day was a delivery of sermons at intervals, interspersed here and there by appeals to sinners to come forward to be prayed for at the anxious seat, while various members, having unusual influence over the unconverted and in touch with God, whispered in their ears the way to find salvation and life.

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So, wife! thou hast known this all day, and let me sit out there in the quarry, on the anxious seat, in the midst of grief, tolling away till night at the poor-sinners'-bell?

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They read of the rebel chieftain, whose name figured daily in the papers, with far deeper interest than ever before, since they now had a personal knowledge of the man whose warlike doings kept several nations on the anxious seat.

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A boy came to the room where I had waited on the anxious seat for an unhappy quarter of an hour.

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He must remain on the anxious seat till the actual event.

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