saddle seat
1. The seat of a saddle.
| 1822 J. Fowler Jrnl. 28 Apr. (1898) 135 We then passed threw Some low Hills a little East of South Seven miles to the River and Crossing over found the Watter up to the Saddle Sceats. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) I. 263 The bent tension springs CC, for supporting the saddle seat. 1963 Bloodgood & Santini Horseman's Dict. 170 Waist, saddle-seat at its narrowest point. |
2. dial. A horse used for riding.
| 1895 ‘Hugh Haliburton’ Dunbar 70 Farmers that hed a saddle seat,..Keep nae beast noo but cats an' mice. |
3. a. A seat made by the crossed hands of two persons.
| 1913 Amer. Jrnl. Insanity Jan. 575 She..suggested that a couple of gentlemen..should clasp their hands so as to form a ‘saddle seat’ for her, and thus she rode from the platform to the car. |
b. A chair seat resembling a saddle (see quot. 1960); also, a chair with such a seat.
| 1934 in Webster. 1952 J. Gloag Short Dict. Furnit. 406 Saddle Seat, a solid wooden seat with two shallow depressions separated by a slight central ridge, suggesting the shape of a saddle. It is used on many types of Windsor chair. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 246/1 Some late 18th cent. chairs have a gently curving seat sloping down in the centre which is described colloquially as a saddle seat. A slightly different form is found on Windsor chairs where the centre of the wooden seat is shaped to resemble a saddle. 1976 Country Life 27 May (Suppl.) 486/1 Late 18th century wheel-back armchairs with saddle seats and X-frame legs. |