at a sitting

Idioms  

1. At one time, during one period. For example, The cruise ship could feed about 500 passengers at a sitting, or We read the entire poem at a sitting. Since the word sitting implies just that posture, the term means “during a period when one is seated and engaged in a single continuous activity.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

at a sitting

Members of the Legislative Council agreed to the latest changes made to the Assisted Dying Bill 2023 by the House of Keys at a sitting earlier.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025

The lower house of parliament is due to take up the issue of the referendum at a sitting next week, according to the state news agency PAP.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2023

I had no trouble watching nine hours of the new series at a sitting, except for the sitting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2020

O’Brien asked how people were able to watch more than one episode of the HBO series “Chernobyl” at a sitting, and she listened, without satisfaction, to talk of streaming and binge-watching.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2019

In 1744 he wrote his powerful Life of Savage—forty-eight octavo pages at a sitting.

From Shorter Novels, Eighteenth Century The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story; Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford