Etimology
From Middle English sete, from Old English sǣte, possibly from (or simply cognate with) Old Norse sæti (“seat”), both from Proto-Germanic *sētiją (“seat”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”); compare Old English set (“seat”). Sense 2 (“location or site”) is probably derived from Old English sǣte (“house”), which is related to Old High German sāza (“sedan, seat, domicile”).
noun
seat (plural seats)
Something to be sat upon.
A location or site.
The starting point of a fire.
Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.
Examples
There are two hundred seats in this classroom.
The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
[…] Grand Union proposes making a seat part of the price of a ticket, with 50% refunds for those travelling for longer than 30 minutes unable to obtain a seat.
He sat on the arm of the chair rather than the seat, which always annoyed his mother.
the seat of a saddle
She pulled the seat from under the table to allow him to sit down.
Hey, fighter boy, our radar's putting out enough energy to launch your seat from this distance!
Instead of saying "sit down", she said "place your seat on this chair".
Several pressmen have nearly lost their lives, to say nothing of the seats of their trousers, from these creatures.
I love these new biker pants I bought! There's padding in the seat to protect my rear end.
The seat of these trousers is almost worn through.
The seat of the valve had become corroded.
Our neighbor has a seat at the stock exchange and in congress.
Washington D.C. is the seat of the U.S. government.
The K'o-tzu-lo-su Kirghiz chou bordered on the K'o-shih chuan-ch'ü and its seat at A-t'u-shih was only twenty-five kilometers from K'o-shih shih.
But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.
A man of fortune, who lives in London, may, in plays, operas, routs, assemblies, French cookery, French sauces, and French wines, spend as much yearly, as he could do, were he to live in the most hospitable manner at his seat in the country.
Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.
a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity
I stopped taking the sweets and condiments I had got from home. The mind having taken a different turn, the fondness for condiments wore away, and I now relished the boiled spinach which in Richmond tasted insipid, cooked without condiments. Many such experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind.
She had so good a seat and hand she might be trusted with any mount.
George was a perfect picture on horseback; he had a light, firm seat, and seemed as if he were a part of his horse, and was only happy when away in the saddle for hours together, mustering cattle or tracking a missing horse.
Related words
hyponyms
airline seat
aisle seat
baby seat
back seat
banana seat
bead seat
bitch seat
bomber seat
booster seat
borough seat
box seat
bucket seat
car seat
catbird seat
child safety seat
country seat
county seat
death seat
driver's seat
drop seat
ejection seat
ejector seat
Elijah seat
Elijah's seat
flap seat
front seat
gunfighter seat
hot seat
jump seat
keyseat
leveling seat
love seat
mercy seat
mother-in-law seat
mourner's seat
nosebleed seat
overhang seat
parish seat
passenger seat
priority seat
ringside seat
rising seat
rout seat
rumble seat
saddle seat
safe seat
toilet seat
tree seat
whiskey seat
whisky seat
wiggle seat
window seat
verb
seat (third-person singular simple present seats, present participle seating, simple past and past participle seated)
(transitive) To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.
(transitive) To provide with a place to sit.
(transitive) To request or direct one or more persons to sit.
(transitive, legislature) To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.
(transitive) To assign the seats of.
(transitive) To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.
(obsolete, intransitive) To rest; to lie down.
To settle; to plant with inhabitants.
(transitive) To put a seat or bottom in.
Examples
Be sure to seat the gasket properly before attaching the cover.
From their foundations, loosening to and fro, / They plucked the seated hills.
One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
This classroom seats two hundred students.
The waiter seated us and asked what we would like to drink.
The guests were no sooner seated but they entered into a warm debate.
He used to seat you on the piano and then, with vehement gestures and pirouettings, would argue the case. Not one word of the speech did you understand.
The older Jungfrau locomotives are of 330 h.p. only, but can push two coaches seating a total of 80 passengers up the 1 in 4 at 4 m.p.h.
Please seat the audience after the anthem and then introduce the first speaker.
Only half the delegates from the state were seated at the convention because the state held its primary too early.
You have to be a member to be seated at the meeting. Guests are welcome to sit in the visitors section.
to seat a church
Thus high […] is King Richard seated.
They had seated themselves in Nova Guiana.
The folds, where sheepe at night doe seat.
to seat a country
The Plantations, for the most Part, are high and pleasantly seated
to seat a chair