anxious seat
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
Etymology
Origin of anxious seat
An Americanism dating back to 1810–20
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Other items which Sir William traces far include: absquatulate, anxious seat, slam bang, cinch, lengthy, maverick, rain check, barn stormer, cowcatcher, calamity howler, greased lightning, rambunctious.
From Time Magazine Archive
Calvin Coolidge has had everybody on the anxious seat for months as to who he would sup port in the November handicap.
From Time Magazine Archive
The way to the church militant, according to this bigot, was from the anxious seat, one of which he always carried with him.
From T. De Witt Talmage As I Knew Him by Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Scraggsy didn't keep us on the anxious seat.
From Mr. Scraggs by Phillips, Henry Wallace
All of them were eventually received, though some were kept on the anxious seat and held as probationers for a long time.
From The Facts of Reconstruction by Lynch, John R.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
