ˈsitting-room
[sitting vbl. n.]
1. a. A room or apartment used for sitting in, esp. in contrast to a bed-room or kitchen.
| 1771 H. Pelham Let. 25 Aug. in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1914) LXXI. 147 The Arches at the sides of the Chimnie in the Sitting Room, I like. 1797 J. Woodforde Diary 31 Jan. (1931) V. 8 Our sitting Room smoked very much all the Morning. 1806 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life vi. (ed. 3) I. 96 A travelling trap for a sitting room! 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. i. i. 4 The usual sitting-room of his house presented a cheerful appearance. 1894 E. Banks Camp. Curiosity 34 With each sleeping-room was connected a sitting-room, where fires were kept. |
| attrib. 1852 Beck's Florist 172 The bouquet with which they are in the habit of daily furnishing their sitting-room table. 1895 Crockett Love Idylls (1901) 125 Behind the sitting-room door. |
b. A portion of a poultry-house in which hens sit or hatch eggs.
| 1849 D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yard (1855) 89 The ends of the nest box may be shifted, so that she will be in the sitting room, where she may remain..till she hatches her brood. |
2. Room or space in which to sit or available for sitting.
| 1881 ‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Pauper xxxii. 365 Trying to find sitting-room in the galleries. 1882 Imperial Dict. s.v., Sitting-room could not be got in the hall. |