Definition of "seat"

Something to be sat upon.

1. A place in which to sit.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

     1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

   • […] Grand Union proposes making a seat part of the price of a ticket, with 50% refunds for those travelling for longer than 30 minutes unable to obtain a seat.

     2019 October, “South Wales open access bid”, in Modern Railways, page 15

2. The horizontal portion of a chair or other furniture designed for sitting.  examples

3. A piece of furniture made for sitting, such as a chair, stool, or bench; any improvised place for sitting.

   1. (aviation, military, slang) An ejection seat.

4. The part of an object or individual (usually the buttocks) directly involved in sitting.  examples

5. The part of a piece of clothing (usually pants or trousers) covering the buttocks.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Several pressmen have nearly lost their lives, to say nothing of the seats of their trousers, from these creatures.

     1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎

   • I love these new biker pants I bought! There's padding in the seat to protect my rear end.

     2006 July 20, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

6. (engineering) A part or surface on which another part or surface rests.  examples

A location or site.

1. (figuratively) A membership in an organization, particularly a representative body.  examples

2. The location of a governing body.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The K'o-tzu-lo-su Kirghiz chou bordered on the K'o-shih chuan-ch'ü and its seat at A-t'u-shih was only twenty-five kilometers from K'o-shih shih.

     1963, Henry G. Schwarz, Policies and Administration of Minority Areas in Northwest China and Inner Mongolia, 1949-1959‎, volume 2, page 338

   • But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.

     2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

3. (certain Commonwealth countries) An electoral district, especially for a national legislature.  examples

4. A temporary residence, such as a country home or a hunting lodge.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • A man of fortune, who lives in London, may, in plays, operas, routs, assemblies, French cookery, French sauces, and French wines, spend as much yearly, as he could do, were he to live in the most hospitable manner at his seat in the country.

     1806, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England

5. The place occupied by anything, or where any person, thing or quality is situated or resides; a site.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Revelation 2:13

   • He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.

     1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret

   • a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity

     1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith ”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871

   • I stopped taking the sweets and condiments I had got from home. The mind having taken a different turn, the fondness for condiments wore away, and I now relished the boiled spinach which in Richmond tasted insipid, cooked without condiments. Many such experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind.

     1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XVII, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press

6. (law, England and Wales) One of a series of departmental placements given to a trainee solicitor as part of their training contract.  examples

7. (historical) Any of several autonomous regions in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.

The starting point of a fire.  examples

Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To provide with a place to sit.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To request or direct one or more persons to sit.  examples

(transitive, legislature) To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.  examples

(transitive) To assign the seats of.  examples

(transitive) To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.  quotations  examples

(obsolete, intransitive) To rest; to lie down.  quotations

To settle; to plant with inhabitants.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To put a seat or bottom in.  examples