sit on
Britishverb
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to be a member of (a committee, etc)
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informal to suppress
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informal to check or rebuke
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Also, sit upon.
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Confer about or deliberate over, as in Another attorney was called to sit on the case . [Mid-1400s]
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Suppress or repress, as in I know they were sitting on some evidence . [Early 1900s]
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Postpone action or resolution regarding, as in I don't know why the city council is sitting on their decision . [Early 1900s]
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Rebuke sharply, reprimand, as in If he interrupts one more time I'm going to sit on him . [ Slang ; second half of 1800s]
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.
Blue Ghost will sit on top of Elytra, Firefly's orbital spacecraft, creating a 22-foot-tall system that is nearly three times the height of the spacecraft used for Blue Ghost Mission 1 in 2025.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
They couldn’t just sit on stuff, because they were part of an active political process.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
Four years after he founded Amazon, Bezos and his wife at the time, MacKenzie Scott, paid $10 million for two homes that sit on a 5-acre plot in the town of Hunts Point.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Some vineyards have been ripping out prized grapes as they sit on unsold bottles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
I sit on a bench and take out the Unremarkable phone Mom gave me.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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.
