anxious seat
Americannoun
-
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.
-
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.
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
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
The traveling men filed out through the smiles of the ladies and went to the hotel, while half the congregation went forward to the anxious seat, to “view the remains.”
From Peck's Compendium of Fun by Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
Yeager had never before sat in the anxious seat as nervously as he did during the next few hours.
From Steve Yeager by Raine, William MacLeod
The revival fairly started, the most excitable were soon on the anxious seat.
From Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
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.
