verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sitting target (= someone who is easy to attack )
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In the open, the soldiers are sitting targets.
a sitting/kneeling/standing position
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The priest rose from his kneeling position by the bed.
fall/sit down etc with a bump
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Rose fell, landing with a bump.
nowhere to go/live/sit etc
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I have no job and nowhere to live.
sat cross-legged
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We sat cross-legged on the floor.
serve/sit on a committee (= be a member of an important committee )
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Our organization is always in need of volunteers to serve on the committee.
sit around a table
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We sat around the table and talked.
sit at a desk
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I don't want to do a job in which I'm sitting at a desk all day.
sit at a table
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He was sitting at a corner table.
sit (down) at the piano
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She sat down at the piano and began to play.
sit in/on a chair
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She sat in her favourite chair.
sit upright
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She was sitting upright in bed.
sit/lie/sleep on the floor
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Officers found her lying face down on the floor.
sit/serve on a jury (= be a member of a jury )
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At that time, black people were not allowed to serve on juries.
sit/serve on the bench (= work as a judge or magistrate )
sit/serve on the board
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She had served on the board of governors of the BBC.
sit/stand bolt upright (= sit or stand with your back very straight )
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Murphy and I both sat bolt upright when we heard the alarm.
sit/take your finals
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Anna sat her finals last summer.
sitting astride
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a photograph of my mother sitting astride a horse
sitting comfortably
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I was sitting comfortably in the lounge, reading a newspaper.
sitting duck
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Out in the open, the soldiers were sitting ducks for enemy fire.
sitting in front of
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I spend most of my time sitting in front of a computer.
sitting member
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the sitting member for Newbury
sitting room
sitting tenant
stand/sit/lie motionless
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The men stood motionless as Weir held his finger to his lips.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
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All participants sit around a large table.
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But in the land of my forebears, women sit around and wait for their men.
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We sat around the table, searching frantically for explanations and hoping unavailingly for good news.
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We would just sit around for hours and tell each other stories.
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Having finished a job, they don't sit around enjoying the results - it's on to the next.
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I can sit around with a word processor and hate everything.
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They all sat around in a circle agreeing what a swine Henry was.
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Everybody sat around talking with Camille.
back
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Jay sat back in her chair.
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Gordy commanded her to sit back down then bolted out the door.
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She heard him returning just as she sat back to admire her handiwork.
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The thick pungent smoke from the spliff filled the car in no time as Firebug took long leisurely tokes and sat back .
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City were content to sit back on their lead, and Newcastle lacked the pace or imagination to break them down.
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Fredrickson talked himself out and finally flushed and apologized like always and sat back down.
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He forced himself to sit back in his chair, to swallow more beer.
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I sat back in the chair, petting a new friend.
down
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By the time Sir Humphrey sat down few people in that court could have felt that Simmons had arrested the wrong man.
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She sipped the bubbly liquid and handed the glass back to Adrienne who sat down close beside her.
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Inder Lal and I sat down under a tree while the watchman went off to find the keys.
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You can see them on the hardwood ridges, but only if you sit down and wait patiently.
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Slinging his mac over the back of a pew he sat down and rested his feet on the one in front.
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Having completed these arrangements, I sat down , naked, on the box in the tub and typed my notes.
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Two large boulders were rolled on to the road and they sat down to wait, guns at the ready.
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She barely gained the dry bank of the stream before she sat down and leaned against a mulberry tree.
here
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But I can't sit here all night.
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I could sit here in the cool shadows of the city for ever.
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They used to sit here together for hours, smoking their pipes and chatting.
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We sit here so that we won t miss seeing anyone who comes in, anyone who goes out.
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I could sit here for hours, just looking.
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John Chico sat here , Alice Puerala sat here.
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She wanted to sit here all day.
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John Chico sat here , Alice Puerala sat here.
in
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Hugh sat in at the window.
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Marge felt herself sinking into the chair she sat in .
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Invite the most junior person in your department to sit in on your executive meeting.
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The body sits in a chair, a pistol nearby.
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No, honestly, I often sit in alone wearing a bottle and a half of Christmas cologne.
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I sat in the sun for a few minutes, naked.
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In a unique demonstration they left their schools to sit in on a county council meeting discussing the cuts.Tim Hurst reports.
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Meir Ahronson sat in an old armchair, a piece of furniture that dated back to the times of King Sobieski.
just
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As a kid I'd just sit and watch my parents work and you'd learn so much.
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Every time it rang, I just sat there.
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You get the child who just sits and can't think what to do.
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Now Craig Bixby was trying to catch his eye, but Sonny just sat there.
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I just sat on the chair, staring at him.
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Three red stars sit just off the right side of my head.
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I du n no how long I sit there, I just sit there and sort of watch the cars go by.
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You just sit back and look around.
next
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I wonder if Emily Post has a chapter on what to wear and whom to sit next to at a hanging.
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No one to sit next to on the plane.
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George came and sat next to him.
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She sat next to him at dinner that night and engaged him in a lively discussion of rope walking.
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Steve had always been particularly friendly to me, and I had often sat next to him.
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Ahtonia sat next to her, holding her hand.
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While flying home I sat next to a senior executive with a large international organization.
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Will he sit next to you?
on
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He was as cold as the stone she sat on , she thought forlornly.
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He sat on his stool, his hands in his aproned lap, his big fleshy head swaying to the music.
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Lena sat on for a quarter of an hour, exactly timed by her watch, before leaving herself.
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Benjy sat on his sagging back steps with six-year-old Louis Klubock, who lived next door.
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She went out, cut more branches, threw the dying ones away, and sat on through the afternoon, thinking.
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We sat on and around the bunker while Nate and Connors told the story.
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Or take campaign-finance reform, which both parties cynically agreed to sit on until 1996 was safely over.
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The shack sat on about 1-1 / 4 rugged acres he bought jointly with his brother for $ 2, 100.
quietly
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If it is injured or sick it may sit quietly in an unusually visible position during daylight hours.
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They sit quietly on the locker-room benches, their faces solemn, their eyes averted.
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Then we asked the students to sit quietly with their eyes closed and think about the costs.
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I sat quietly and listened to their exchange.
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But one evening - a full hour before her usual meal - I sat quietly in the armchair, reading.
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So they could sit quietly adding block after block to various buildings they were constructing.
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There was only one exception, a very elderly male who sat quietly and hardly moved.
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She sat quietly on the steel chair, looking sad.
still
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In fact, Mr Murdoch could not sit still .
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She sat still , placid and waiting, until he was clear up the steps.
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His two visitors had sat still , waiting patiently until the coughing subsided.
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The enemy, aware of the strength of his position, simply sat still and waited for us.
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I sat still , sipping slowly and thinking hard.
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I had the sense that it was difficult for him to sit still .
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Maxim did nothing except sit still and watch as Agnes had told him to.
there
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She sat there , mouth open.
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Let it sit there a while.
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My three daughters sat there waiting for me.
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She sat there till she died.
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Roland had once asked her if he could help in the garden, in exchange for the right to sit there sometimes.
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She just sat there , silently.
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As I sat there , the china spewed forth from the open door and cascaded down the ready-made ramp into my lap.
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So it just sits there with the layer of dust on its monitor getting thicker all the time.
up
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I sat up at the counter and ordered Scotch on the rocks.
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And although the bebop classics give her the most vocal trouble, she nevertheless makes you sit up and take notice.
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During the study the subject was allowed to sit up , or walk around briefly if they wished every 60 minutes.
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After a bit they sat up and watched the welcome breeze work like an animal through the silver-green barley.
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Yet when another child is attacked, they sit up and take notice.
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Increase the work-load by holding a weight against your chest as you sit up .
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Or ... Maggie sat up in bed.
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Amy sat up and put her mug down on the table and swung her feet to the floor.
■ NOUN
bed
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I sat on the bed for a few moments, recovering.
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She nodded and sat on the bed a moment, staring at him.
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She had sat up in bed and was shouting like a mad-woman.
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And at that moment Ed sat up in the bed , looking straight ahead, a tear rolling down his cheek.
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Philippa sat cross-legged beside the bed , as if meditating on the carpet.
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They sat on the bed cross-legged and looked straight at each other.
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Then she sat on the bed next to Sarah.
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I sat on the bed and thought.
bench
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Those who sit on the Treasury Bench make claims about average net income increases.
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Grunt Six and the other captain sat on the bench seat facing forward.
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The captain invited us brusquely to sit on a bench before the table and hurried out of a side door.
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We crossed Main Street and went into a little park, sat on a wooden bench under a huge scraggly tree.
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I sat down on the bench and leaned back against the wall.
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I just sat on the park bench and watched him dragging that potbelly around.
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At the police station Rita sat on a wooden bench and answered questions.
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They made an appointment and while walking toward the building, stopped to sit on a bench .
chair
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He longed to know which chair she sat in, what space she occupied.
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Marge felt herself sinking into the chair she sat in.
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When I fall asleep in my chair he always sits on my lap.
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He went to his chair and sat down.
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After she seated herself at our table, other writers came by and, pulling chairs over, sat down.
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The red chair where I sit has a long seat, comfortable for a tall person.
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When chairs sit in the middle of a space, the back might be the first part you see.
desk
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The long black beads at her waist rattled against the desk as she sat in the chair next to his.
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Emily moved to the desk and sat down, spreading the pages of figures out before her.
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He went behind the desk and sat down.
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At a desk before the window sat a pale man in a dark suit.
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He returned to his desk and sat down.
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On the other side of each desk , the applicant sits in a large, heavily padded, executive-type swivel chair.
edge
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She sat on the edge of her bed for a few minutes, digging dirt from under her nails.
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De Nesle sat down on the edge of the desk and picked up the coffee cup.
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I rested for a few minutes, then sat on the edge of the bed and looked around.
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The small village, no more than 20 wooden and canvas shacks, sat on the edge of a coastal inlet.
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Young Paul Collins sat on the edge of a chair in my office in Ada, Michigan.
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He went over and sat on the edge of the bed.
fire
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To sit by fires and watch the moon rise.
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Pregnant every year including the year she sat by the fire telling him she was going to run.
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As he sat by the fire softening potatoes between his gums, he felt pleased with himself.
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We retire into the cabin to eat by candlelight, then come back out to sit around the fire and talk.
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He told us to sit by the fire .
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When l joined him there, we sat out by the fire and I pestered him for the story.
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Sir George drew the curtains, and motioned Roland and Maud to sit down by the fire , in the velvet chairs.
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He sat in front of the fire and found his place.
floor
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Robyn sat on the floor by the fire, with her plate on her lap, and tucked in.
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Then he sat down on the floor beside her and smoked his pipe.
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They did not sit on the floor .
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He turned off the cold water, picked up the razor blade and sat on the floor next to the tub.
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She continued to sit limply on the floor .
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He sat cross-legged on the floor scanning titles for hours.
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The student sits on the floor and opens his legs in front of him, pushing his body weight forward as far as it will go.
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His boss sat on the forty-first floor and was still basking in the reflected glory of his minion.
kitchen
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Now he sat at the kitchen table with the worm-cake before him and the taste of nausea already on his tongue.
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All week-end long, it sat on the kitchen table staring at him like a cold watery eye.
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He sits in the kitchen all that time.
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Then Beatrice and Mike Tonelli and I sit at the kitchen table.
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He sat down at the kitchen table and picked up the hacksaw.
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Afterward I sat in the kitchen with her over a cup of coffee.
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She spooned four heaped spoonfuls of sugar into it and some condensed milk and sat at the kitchen table.
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Norma sat silently in the kitchen of their home, drinking coffee and trying to calm her nerves.
room
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It opened straight on to her living room , and I sat down before she could change her mind.
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In the living room , I sit , feet up, huddled in a rocking chair.
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When she went into the rest room she sat down for a minute while waiting for Peggy to come out of the lavatory.
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Then, staggering under the weight, she carried her suitcases into the waiting room and sat down beside Ollie.
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In the next room Dinah sits at her window praying.
seat
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Compare the statement that he sat in a seat iii the circle.
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Grunt Six and the other captain sat on the bench seat facing forward.
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The chief innovation however, were the 32 passengers who sat along wooden seats at each side.
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I sat in the right seat with my hands and feet near the controls, waiting, tense, scared.
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She sat back in the seat as she racked her brain before coming to just one conclusion: Harry Martin.
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Sarah sat up in her seat .
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Juliet sat rigidly in her seat .
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Williams just sat in his seat behind him, glaring.
side
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Personal Bankers sit on your side of the counter so they are easy to talk to.
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He looked at both of them as they sat side to side across from him, fingers interlocked.
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The person who sat at the side of the Secretary of State was the regional officer from Leeds.
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Acutes: sit on your side of the day room and wait for cards and Monopoly games to be brought out.
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Two grey-haired ladies sat either side of a fire eating green soup from wide dishes on their knees.
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Master Yehudi sat by my side throughout this ordeal.
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Victor sat on her other side .
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Chromes: sit on your side and puzzles from the Red Cross box.
silence
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So they sat in tense silence together, reading.
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After Olivia Davenport left, he sat in silence , staring at the door.
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Enigmatically, Boon sits in silence for a while.
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They sat in silence for a while.
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They sat in silence , eating, drinking, two amiable and contented men.
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We sat suddenly swamped by silence , intense and enveloping.
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We sat in silence as the trap entered the estate grounds.
table
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The waitress pushed two tables together and we sat down and studied the menus.
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Sometimes children must wait for an empty chair at the milk table before they can sit down.
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They never put their elbows on the table , and they sat up straight instead of slouching.
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The table he sat at was circular and made of pine or what Hilbert and Adam's father had called deal.
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They groped their way to a plastic table and sat facing the swaying shadows at the bar.
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Ben went slowly to the big table and sat down.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
at/in one sitting
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Jeff ate a whole bag of potato chips in one sitting .
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As in my landscapes, I work quickly and the portrait has to be completed in one sitting .
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At other times the sessions are intended to serve the need of teachers of five of six languages at one sitting .
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But if you get a copy, save it for when you can read it at one sitting .
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I devoured it all almost at one sitting , reading it until my eyes closed.
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I read it in one sitting and lay awake that night disturbed by its power and frightened by its implication.
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It is an interesting book to dip into, but it can not be read at one sitting .
be (sitting) in the catbird seat
be sitting on a goldmine
be/lie/sit sprawled (out)
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He was lying sprawled across the pillow leaning on his elbow, his head propped to one side, reading the letter.
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His rear gunner lay sprawled dead in the back.
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The next thing she knew, she was lying sprawled across the pavement.
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The observer lay sprawled across his gun, his blond hair streaming romantically in the wind.
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We may see a road accident but we shall never be sprawled out on the tarmacadam like that.
rest/sit on your laurels
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But there is no room for resting on our laurels .
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But this generous accolade does not mean that we are resting on our laurels .
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Little time was granted to Lee and his men for resting on their laurels .
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Motorola has long been a leader in that as well, and it has never stopped to rest on its laurels .
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That is the only time when you can rest on your laurels .
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The religious authorities, who were very active during the nationalist struggle, rested on their laurels after independence.
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This evolution of Diamond Rio signals that the group is not ready to rest on its laurels -- at least not voluntarily.
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You can never rest on your laurels .
ride/sit side-saddle
sit/be on the fence
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He is the obvious choice for those who wish to sit on the fence .
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If the encyclopaedia has a weakness it is that it sits on the fence on controversial issues.
sit/lie/lean back
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Craig sighed and leaned back in his chair.
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But no one can sit back in investment clubs and just listen.
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He must generate all his own internal discipline against the possible inclination to lie back and enjoy his good fortune.
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He sat back on his heels, sorrowfully examining the ruined glove.
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He walked without hesitation to the very front row, sat down and lay back , gazing up at the screen.
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She heard him returning just as she sat back to admire her handiwork.
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Then she lay back on her pillow and they looked at each other as if it was for the first time.
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We started to sit back because we were up on the No. 1 team in the nation.
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Whatever some think, we don't sit back .
sit/stand bolt upright
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We found her sitting bolt upright in bed with all the lights on.
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He sat bolt upright and kept his eyes on the table in front of him.
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Hotspur sat bolt upright in the saddle, his eyes narrowed on the hurtling horsemen, and never moved a hand.
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I walked across her line of vision and she sat bolt upright in annoyance.
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She sat bolt upright in the back seat during the hour long journey, some of which was on a motorway.
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She sat bolt upright, aches and pains quite forgotten.
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She sat bolt upright; her features were strong, her manna forthright, even aggressive.
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Suddenly I sit bolt upright, feeling a familiar stab of panic that can mean only one thing: the videos!
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Suddenly, Urquhart stood bolt upright, not twenty yards in front of the deer which froze in confusion.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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A woman in a huge hat came and sat right in front of us.
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After a few days, he was finally allowed to sit up in bed.
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An grey-haired woman was sitting at the reception desk.
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Billy sat on the edge of the desk, swinging his legs.
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Come and sit next to me -- I haven't seen you for ages.
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Come and sit on Mommy's knee.
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Do you want to sit next to Brian?
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He sat down right beside me.
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I sat my final exams last year.
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I saw a man with grey hair sitting in the car next to Jean.
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I wish you children would sit still for 10 minutes.
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Is it okay if I sit here?
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It's so hot in here. Shall we go and sit by the window?
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Jeff's dog sat next to his chair as we talked.
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Let's go sit outside.
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The Court of Appeals sits in San Francisco.
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We all used to sit around the kitchen table, smoking and chatting.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Claude and Ruth were talking quietly with Pat, who sat cross-legged on the sofa.
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He sat thinking how he was stuck with her, how there was no privacy in this house for emergency situations.
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He came over to me, picked up the piece of paper before me, and sat back down on the bed.
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Peter would have liked to sit next to Kate but he had lacked the necessary social agility to secure the centre position.
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Riker and I and Reacher and the gunner sat around the Huey and ate lunch.
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Taking the book to the chair by the fire, Alexandra sat down with it in her hand.
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The cistern of the close-coupled design sits on top of the pan and is connected directly to it.
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The power struggle went on for about a minute, then the Archon sat down.