Word.ws English Dictionary

sitten

sitten is the past participle of sit.

sitten is the plural simple present of sit.

Adjective

sitten (comparative more sitten, superlative most sitten)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, dialectal) Seated.
    • The tailȝeour was no thing weill sittin, He left the sadill.a1513, W. Dunbar, Poems (1998) 155
    • He micht counter Will on horss, For Sym wes bettir sittin Nor Will.c1560, A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.) ii. 38
  2. Settled; stationary; not easily stirred or moved.
    • Their fire edge might help to kindle-up old sitten-up professours.1671, J. Livingston, Let. to Parishoners Ancram 15

Meaning of sit

Verb

sit (third-person singular simple present sits, present participle sitting, simple past sat or (dated, poetic) sate, past participle sat or (dated, poetic) sate or (archaic, dialectal) sitten)

  1. (copulative, intransitive) To be in a position in which the upper body is upright and supported by the buttocks.
    • After a long day of walking, it was good just to sit and relax.
    Synonyms:
    be seated
  2. (intransitive) To move oneself into such a position.
    • I asked him to sit.
    Synonyms:
    be seated, sit down, sit up, take a seat
  3. (intransitive) To occupy a given position.
    • The dishes are still sitting on the table!
    Synonyms:
    be
  4. (copulative, intransitive) To remain in a state of repose; to rest; to abide; to rest in any position or condition.
    • And Moses said to […] the children of Reuben, Shall your brothren go to war, and shall ye sit here?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 32:6
  5. To be a member of a deliberative body.
    • I currently sit on a standards committee.
  6. Of a legislative or, especially, a judicial body such as a court, to be in session.
    • In what city is the circuit court sitting for this session?

See all 20 meanings of sit

Forms of sitten

Verb
alternative formsittin
Adjective
comparativemore sitten
superlativemost sitten

Origin of sitten

From Middle English siten, seten, from Old English seten, ġeseten, past participle of sittan (“to sit”). Equivalent to sit + -en (past participle). Cognate with Dutch gezeten, German gesessen.

From Middle English sitten, equivalent to sit + -en (plural present).

Words formed from sitten

  • well-sitten
  • sitten-up

Phrases with sitten

Words that rhyme with sitten

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sitten

What does sitten mean?
Sitten means seated.
What is sitten the past participle of?
Sitten is the past participle of sit.
What part of speech is sitten?
Sitten is an adjective.

Words near sitten in the dictionary

  1. sitted
  2. sittee
  3. sittees
  4. sittella
  5. sittellas
  6. sitten
  7. sitten down
  8. Sittenfeld
  9. sitter
  10. sitter-in
  11. sitters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sitten (page history and authors); sit (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “sitten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sitten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.