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• sit-down
  sit-down

  adjective

  done or accomplished while sitting down.
• sit down
  sit down

  verb

  to adopt or cause (oneself or another) to adopt a sitting posture

sit-down

American  

[sit-doun] / ˈsɪtˌdaʊn /

adjective

1. done or accomplished while sitting down.

   sit-down meetings between the two party leaders.

2. (of a meal or food) served to or intended for persons seated at a table.

   a sit-down dinner.

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noun

sit-downs plural

1. Informal. a period or instance of sitting, as to relax, talk, or the like.

   They had a profitable sit-down together.

2. sit-down strike.

3. a protest demonstration whereby participants refuse to move from a public place.

4. Informal. a meal, especially a dinner, served to persons who are seated at a table.

sit down British  

verb

1. to adopt or cause (oneself or another) to adopt a sitting posture

2. to suffer (insults, etc) without protests or resistance

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noun

1. a form of civil disobedience in which demonstrators sit down in a public place as a protest or to draw attention to a cause

2. See sit-down strike

adjective

1. (of a meal, etc) eaten while sitting down at a table

sit down Idioms  

1. Take a seat, as in Won't you sit down? I won't be long . [c. 1200]

2. sit down to . Prepare to eat a meal, as in At six we all sat down to dinner . [Late 1500s]

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sit-downs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sit-down

First recorded in 1830–40; adj. and noun use of verb phrase sit down

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sit-down sit down sit-downs

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg met Burnham for his first sit-down interview since taking charge and got an exclusive behind the scenes look at the new Manchester office.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

The defining moment in Victor Marx’s surreal quest to be Colorado’s governor came a few weeks ago, during a rare sit-down interview with a journalist.

From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026

It opened its first sit-down restaurants with expanded menus in Anaheim in 1946.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2026

In their world, a sit-down lunch at a Midtown Manhattan restaurant can easily top $100, an after-work drink can run $30, and tuition for many private schools is nearly $70,000 a year—per child.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Volpe rarely has big sit-down conversations with his actors.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

After more than a decade of marriage, this is an excellent time to sit down together with an estate-planning attorney and, if necessary, the attorney who drafted your prenup.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was being interviewed on national broadcaster ABC on Monday night when he interrupted the one-on-one to shriek "sit down!"

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

"I can still walk, let there be no doubt, but I can't walk very far without needing to rest, meaning I need to sit down," he said.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

Give yourself another award if you want, but after watching you over these past few days, there’s no getting over the fact that you need to sit down.

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026

Which shouldn’t have been a huge surprise, but it was still a bummer to sit down to my first breakfast at the mountain to his scowling face.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

For the superrich, private bankers or lawyers might fly to vacation homes to facilitate sit-downs or kick-start a financial conversation on the ski slopes or at the lake house.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

It was one of those sit-downs where you, the talent, talk about your dream projects and what you’ve got cooking and see if there’s maybe mutual interest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025

“Win the nomination, pick your nominee, lay out your economic plan, do your convention and now do some sit-downs and amplify that.”

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2024

She mentioned one of his big legacy-media sit-downs, an interview with George Stephanopoulos, seemingly just to establish that Bankman-Fried was making the rounds and talking a lot.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2023

I could escape the stage-managed multilateral meetings and sit-downs with leaders and find new ways to bring a little extra warmth to those otherwise staid visits.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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