Word.ws English Dictionary

sit idly by

sit idly by verb: to remain close or stand aside while refraining from acting or intervening.

Verb

sit idly by (third-person singular simple present sits idly by, present participle sitting idly by, simple past and past participle sat idly by)

  1. To remain close or stand aside while refraining from acting or intervening.
    Synonyms:
    sit by

sit idly by meaning in Arabic

sit idly by in Arabic

Translations
وَقَفَ مَكْتُوفَ اليَدَيْن waqafa maktūfa l-yadayn

Synonyms of sit idly by

Forms of sit idly by

third-person singular presentsits idly by
present participlesitting idly by
past participlesat idly by
pastsat idly by

Questions about sit idly by

What does sit idly by mean?
Sit idly by means to remain close or stand aside while refraining from acting or intervening.
What is sit idly by in Arabic?
Sit idly by in Arabic is وَقَفَ مَكْتُوفَ اليَدَيْن (waqafa maktūfa l-yadayn). See Sit idly by meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is sit idly by?
Sit idly by is a verb.
What is the past tense of sit idly by?
The past tense of sit idly by is sat idly by.

Words near sit idly by in the dictionary

  1. sit bones
  2. sit by
  3. sit dead-red
  4. sit down
  5. sit for
  6. sit idly by
  7. sit in
  8. sit in for
  9. sit in judgement
  10. sit in judgment
  11. sit in on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sit idly by (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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