| Library / English Dictionary |
SIT BY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Be inactive or indifferent while something is happening
Example:
Don't just sit by while your rights are violated!
Synonyms:
sit back; sit by
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "sit by" is one way to...):
look on; watch (observe with attention)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Context examples:
He could suit himself to his company, too, for on the one hand he could take his wine with the vicar, or with Sir James Ovington, the squire of the parish; while on the other he would sit by the hour amongst my humble friends down in the smithy, with Champion Harrison, Boy Jim, and the rest of them, telling them such stories of Nelson and his men that I have seen the Champion knot his great hands together, while Jim’s eyes have smouldered like the forge embers as he listened.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"Well, I cannot return to the house," I thought; "I cannot sit by the fireside, while he is abroad in inclement weather: better tire my limbs than strain my heart; I will go forward and meet him."
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But the king insisted on it, and said: “You shall sit by me,” until he did it.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
But before he dies, many times does he sit by my fire and make talk of the strange things he has seen.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
He very seldom said anything; but would sit by the fire in much the same attitude as he sat in his cart, and stare heavily at Peggotty, who was opposite.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
As it was, he cowered down in a paralysis of fear, already half proffering the submission that his kind had proffered from the first time a wolf came in to sit by man's fire and be made warm.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Her stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in the high road, there to spin until she made her fingers bleed.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
That night we make camp at Windy Arm. Woman sit by fire and eat supper. I look at her. She is pretty. She fix hair.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The tea table was ready, and our little locker was put out in its old place, but instead of coming to sit by me, she went and bestowed her company upon that grumbling Mrs. Gummidge: and on Mr. Peggotty's inquiring why, rumpled her hair all over her face to hide it, and could do nothing but laugh.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
