| 释义 |
▪ I. sitter1|ˈsɪtə(r)|
Also 4 siter, sittere, 5 syttarre, 6 sittare.
[f. sit v. + -er. Cf. WFris. sitter, MDu. sitter, zitter (Du. zitter), G. sitzer.]
1. One who sits or occupies a seat:
a. In general use.
a1340Hampole Psalter xlix. 5 He..sall call..all perfite men to be siters wiþ him and deme. 1388Wyclif Rev. v. 1 Y say in the riȝthond of the sittere on the trone, a book. c1400Destr. Troy 9140 Hit semyt by sight of sitters aboute, As the moron mylde meltid aboue. c1440Promp. Parv. 457 Syttare, at mete, conviva. 1565Cooper Thes., Sessor, one that sitteth: a sitter. 1608Dispute Quest. Kneeling 73 Not kneelers at any distance from the table,..but sitters at the table. 1626Bacon Sylva §740 The Turks are great Sitters and seldom walk. 1650Bounds Publ. Obed. (ed. 2) 47 Few or many sitters in the House, is not a thing of our examination, if they be above forty. 1806W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. IV. 561 Oft from the sitter tales fall about; and from the recumbent, lies. 1837W. B. Adams Carriages Introd. 18 The seat, for a single sitter, was placed in the centre of the poles. 1897R. Broughton Dear Faustina xiv, In a quarrel the sitter has always an advantage over the stander.
fig.1862Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. Poet. Wks. (1879) 277/1 A large majority..who hold with Dædalus, the primal sitter-on-the-fence, that [etc.].
b. A person who sits to an artist, photographer, or sculptor, for a portrait, etc., or as a model.
1649Lovelace Poems 62 As if thou..didst draw With those brave eyes your Royall Sitters saw. 1816Galt Life B. West 69 [The artist's] youth and the peculiar incidents of his history attracted many sitters. 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. xxxvii. (1844) II. 37, I am going further to get sitters than any of my fellow artists ever did. 1883Hardwich's Photogr. Chem. 297 The roof over the sitter..must also be opaque.
c. A passenger in a rowing-boat, as distinct from the rowers or steersman; spec. at Eton (see quot. 1827).
1653Appleton Fight Legorn-Road 5 Captain Cox in the Elizabeth's Shallop with nine Oars and four Sitters. 1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1086/3 A single Boat, with but two Sitters, besides the ordinary crew of Rowers. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 66 A boat put off..with four oars and one sitter only. 1827Ann. Reg. 480/2 Mr. Canning was the sitter in the ‘ten-oar’ at the Eton regatta, a post of honour which is always reserved by the boys for some favoured visitor. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, His boat had no cushion for a sitter, no paint, no inscription.
†d. Cards, etc. One who actually takes part in a game, as distinct from one who stands by and bets on it. Obs. rare.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. lii, He then explained the difference between the sitters and the betters; characterized the first as old rooks, and the last as bubbles.
e. Sc. One who has a seat in a church.
1838Chalmers Wks. XII. 212 A sitter in the Church of St. John.
f. (See quot.)
1851in Mayhew Lond. Lab. II. 35/1 Five men worked [at ‘translating’ shoes] and slept there, and three were sitters—that is, men who paid 1s. a week to sit there and work, lodging elsewhere.
g. One who has a sitting with a medium.
1909in Webster. 1928Daily Mail 25 July 6/2 If media were unable to get into a trance the sitting was cancelled and the money returned to the sitter. 1961W. H. Salter Zoar vi. 73 The sitter brings with him marked plates which he gives the medium. 1977‘L. Egan’ Blind Search ii. 32 One of their perennial sitters, Claire Ewing..a researcher herself, not an emotion-harried sentimentalist seeking reassurance.
h. U.S. slang. (See quots. 1938, 19482.)
1938S. Hart New Yorkers 183 Bowery barkeeps employed homeless men and women as ‘sitters’ to shiver near the fire on wintry nights and thus evoke the sympathy of cash customers who would treat them to drinks to the great profit of the house. 1948Sun (Baltimore) 7 Aug. 5/4 Violations, particularly of sitters' rules, would mean suspension or barring women from the licensed premises. 1948H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 682 Women who frequent taverns or night-clubs, getting a percentage on the drinks they induce male patrons to buy, are..sitters.
i. A baby-sitter.
1943Life 8 Nov. 100/2 (caption) Matt Thomson stays home with baby... Once they would have hired capable ‘sitter’. Now only inexperienced girls are available. 1951H. MacInnes Neither Five nor Three i. i. 11 She and Jon couldn't come to the party because the baby was sick or they couldn't get a sitter. 1960Sunday Express 26 June 5/3 He has a first-class nurse and a ‘sitter’ while I am away. 1975[see sit v. 1 g].
j. A participant in a sit-in or sit-down.
1961Britannica Bk. of Year 537/2 Sit in,..and sitter, terms used in connection with the attempts by Negroes to eat in cafés and restaurants from which they were normally excluded. 1961Guardian 22 Sept. 12/4 There are still people who think that marchers and sitters can be dismissed because some are oddly dressed.
†2. One who sits on a horse or other animal; a rider. Also transf. Obs.
a1340Hampole Psalter xxxii. 17 Þe sittere on þat hors sall noght be safe in habundaunce of his vertu. 1382Wyclif Num. xxii. 25 Whom seynge, the asse ioynede hym silf to the wal, and briside the foot of the sitter. ― 2 Macc. iii. 25 Forsothe sum hors apeeride to hem, hauynge a dreedful sitter. 1515Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) c iij b/i, But if this same colte be broken at the last, His sitter ruleth and him refrayneth fast. 1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 659 Hornets..getting upon the poor Bees backs, they use them in stead of a Waggon or carriage: for when the silly Bee laboureth to be discharged of his cruel Sitter: the Hornet..spareth not to kill..his..chief maintainer.
†3. A name for the hare. Obs.—1
13..MS. Digby 86 fol. 168 b, Þe sittere, þe gras hoppere, þe Fitelfot, þe fold sittere.
4. A female bird, esp. a domestic hen, which sits on eggs for the purpose of hatching them.
1614Markham Cheap Husb. (1623) 137 A Henne will be a good sitter from the second yeare of her laying to the fift. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 256 The oldest [hens] being always reckoned the best Sitters, and the youngest the best Layers. 1836Penny Cycl. VI. 229/1 The plan of giving the eggs to another sitter. 1884L. F. Allen Amer. Farm Bk. 493 The hen [turkey]..is an inveterate sitter, and carefully hatches most of her eggs.
5. With advs., as sitter-by, sitter-out, sitter-up; sitter-in: (a) a baby-sitter; (b) one who takes part in a sit-in; (c) one who sits in with a band (sit v. 24 f).
(a)1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. 167 Princes that haue theyr sitters by, to whom they commit theyr office to rule and gouerne in their stede. 1804C. Smith Conversations, etc. II. 79 It is very dull tho', Mamma, to the sitters-by. 1850Clough Dipsychus ii. iv. 89 Life..still delights to turn The tide of sport upon the sitters-by. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. clx. III. 173 He must be excused by the honourable members who complained of something in his pocket injurious to the sitters-by.
(b)1611Beaum. & Fl. Philaster ii, Not a bed Ladies? y'are good sitters up. 1822Lamb Ess. Elia, Confess. Drunkard, They were men of boisterous spirits, sitters up a-nights, disputants, drunken. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. lxxi, There's them can pay for hospitals..choose to be sitters-up night and day.
(c)1829C. A. Southey Ch. on Churchyards II. 292 An unwearied sitter out of..Dr. Hartop's long stories. 1853Mrs. Gaskell Cranford i. 14 Miss Jessie could not play cards: but she talked to the sitters-out.
(d)1947J. L. Burn Recent Advances in Public Health ix. 132 To enable husband and wife to go out together, a ‘sitters in’ service to look after the baby has been established in some areas. 1951M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael vii. iv. 330 ‘We shan't even be able to go to the club.’ ‘We'll get a sitter-in for them.’ 1960Guardian 30 Dec. 10/5 The husband..[acted] as the sitter-in when his wife was on evening shift. 1962Maroon (Univ. of Chicago) 20 July 1 (heading) Convict Cairo sitters-in; fine each $300. 1963Economist 8 June 1013/1 Negro ‘sitters-in’..gather daily to decide who shall court arrest. 1968Blues Unlimited Dec. 12 Jake recorded with his current group..plus assorted sitters-in. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 6 Nov. 7/2 Members of the Jess Roden Band are some of our favourite ‘sitters-in’. 1976J. I. M. Stewart Memorial Service vi. 92 There would be eruptions. ‘Demos’ would be held, buildings sat in by sitters-in.
6. Anything easy or (apparently) certain of performance; an easy catch, stroke, or shot; a sitting target; a certain winner; a certainty.
1898Tit-Bits 25 June 252/3 A ‘sitter’ is a catch which falls absolutely into the hands. 1903G. L. Jessop in H. G. Hutchinson Cricket v. 117 The missing of a ‘sitter’ by some lazy fieldsman whose thoughts were anywhere but on the game. 1908A. S. M. Hutchinson Once aboard Lugger i. iv. 50 ‘You know I got ploughed?’ ..‘Bad luck, I suppose? I thought it was a sitter for you this time.’ 1917H. A. Vachell Fishpingle ix. 183 ‘Down ours,’ enjoined Lionel to his [golfing] partner. ‘You'll do it, Joyce. It's a sitter.’ 1918Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 239/1 ‘A sitter, by the Great Hook Block!’ cried Carstairs. ‘A transport full of Boches!’ 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves v. 54 An absolute sitter came unstitched in the second race at Haydock Park. 1927Observer 3 July 18/1 A series of very bad shots, including a double fault by Borotra, the missing of absolute ‘sitters’ by both players and the driving of many easy balls into the net well over the baseline. 1946Sunday Dispatch 8 Sept. 6/2 Midway through the second half Bradley missed a sitter when Roper centred across an open goal. 1951N. M. Gunn Well at World's End xix. 156 A pheasant showed, an old cock. The bird stood. We stood. ‘Granville, my boy,’ he said to me, ‘I always want you to remember this: Confucious never shot at a sitter.’ 1973A. Hunter Gently French ii. 16 They use two [routes]... The trouble is they just alternate them... So they were sitters for a villain like Quarles. 1977Times of Swaziland 11 Feb. 14/2 When Wire Kunene was given a sitter on a plate by the evergreen Sugar Ray Zulu, Kunene let slip the chance. 1980Amer. Speech 1976 LI. 294 Sitter, ball that is soft and easy to return.
▪ II. sitter2 Oxford Univ. slang.|ˈsɪtə(r)|
[-er6: cf. bed-sitter.]
A sitting-room.
1904[see -er6]. 1925Glasgow Herald 24 Oct. 6 If lectures are to be broadcast, the temptation to listen to them in the quiet and comfort of one's own sitter will be irresistible. |