Word.ws English Dictionary

sits idly by

sits idly by is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sit idly by.

Meaning of sit idly by

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

Questions about sits idly by

What is sits idly by the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Sits idly by is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sit idly by.

Words near sits idly by in the dictionary

  1. sits back
  2. sits back on one's heels
  3. sits by
  4. sits down
  5. sits for
  6. sits idly by
  7. sits in
  8. sits in for
  9. sits in judgement
  10. sits in judgment
  11. sits in on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sits idly by (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “sits idly by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sits_idly_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.