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SIT UP
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I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not go to bed
Example:
We sat up all night to watch the election
Synonyms:
sit up; stay up
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "sit up" is one way to...):
wake (be awake, be alert, be there)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
Change to an upright sitting position
Example:
He sat up in bed
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "sit up" is one way to...):
change posture (undergo a change in bodily posture)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
sit-up (a stomach exercise in which a person sits up from a supine position without using the arms for leverage)
Context examples:
We’ll sit up on guard with our pistols, nephew, and I only trust that these villains may be indiscreet enough to attempt it.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
For two days Rachel Howells had been so ill, sometimes delirious, sometimes hysterical, that a nurse had been employed to sit up with her at night.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They had left Louisa beginning to sit up; but her head, though clear, was exceedingly weak, and her nerves susceptible to the highest extreme of tenderness; and though she might be pronounced to be altogether doing very well, it was still impossible to say when she might be able to bear the removal home; and her father and mother, who must return in time to receive their younger children for the Christmas holidays, had hardly a hope of being allowed to bring her with them.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
One evening, about Christmas-time, as he and his wife were sitting over the fire chatting together, he said to her, I should like to sit up and watch tonight, that we may see who it is that comes and does my work for me.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Fanny, fatigued and fatigued again, was thankful to accept the first invitation of going to bed; and before Betsey had finished her cry at being allowed to sit up only one hour extraordinary in honour of sister, she was off, leaving all below in confusion and noise again; the boys begging for toasted cheese, her father calling out for his rum and water, and Rebecca never where she ought to be.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Amy preserved a discreet silence, but there was a conscious look in her downcast face that made Laurie sit up and say gravely, "Now I'm going to play brother, and ask questions. May I?"
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Without a word he motioned her to sit up in bed.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I allowed Adele to sit up much later than usual; for she declared she could not possibly go to sleep while the doors kept opening and shutting below, and people bustling about.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He did, on the condition of some promises on her side: such as that, if she came home cold, she would be sure to warm herself thoroughly; if hungry, that she would take something to eat; that her own maid should sit up for her; and that Serle and the butler should see that every thing were safe in the house, as usual.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy; but having leave, as a high treat, to sit up until my mother came home from spending the evening at a neighbour's, I would rather have died upon my post (of course) than have gone to bed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
