Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SIR-NAME, n. [Is more correctly written Surname.]

SI-RO, n.

A mite. – Encyc.

SI-ROC'CO, n. [It. id.; Sp. siroco or xaloque.]

A pernicious wind that blows from the south-east in Italy, called the Syrian wind. It is said to resemble the steam from the mouth of an oven.

SIR'RAH, n.

A word of reproach and contempt; used in addressing vile characters. Go, sirrah, to my cell. Shak. [I know not whence we have this word. The common derivation of it from sir, ha, is ridiculous.]

SIRT, n. [sert; L. Syrtis.]

A quicksand. [Not in use.]

SIR'UP, n. [Oriental. See Sherbet and Absorb.]

The sweet juice of vegetables or fruits, or other juice sweetened; or sugar boiled with vegetable infusions. Coxe.

SIR'UP-ED, a.

Moistened or tinged with sirup or sweet juice. Drayton.

SIR'UP-Y, a.

Like sirup, or partaking of its qualities. Mortimer.

SISE, n.

Six, a term in games.

SISE, v. [or n. For Assize.]

SIS'KIN, n.

A bird; another name of the aberdavine. Johnson. Dict. Nat. Hist. The siskin or aberdavine is the Fringilla spinus. Ed. Encyc.

SISS, v.i. [D. sissen; Dan. suuser; G. sausen; Sw. susa, to buzz, rush, hiss, whistle.]

To hiss; a legitimate word in universal popular use in New England.

SIS'TER, n. [Sax. sweoster; D. zuster; G. schwester; Sw. syster; Dan. söster; Russ. sestra; Pol. siostra; Dalmatian, szesztre; Sans. swasre.]

1. A female born of the same parents; correlative to brother.
2. A woman of the same faith; a female fellow Christian. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food … – James ii.
3. A female of the same kind. – Shak.
4. One of the same kind, or of the same condition; as, sister–fruits. – Pope.
5. A female of the same society; as the nuns of a convent.

SIS'TER, v.i.

To be akin; to be near to. [Little used.] – Shak.

SIS'TER, v.t.

To resemble closely. [Little used.] – Shak.

SIS'TER-HOOD, n. [sister and hood.]

1. Sisters collectively or a society of sisters; or a society of females united in one faith or order. Addison.
2. The office or duty of a sister. [Little used.]

SIS'TER-IN-LAW, n.

A husband's or wife's sister. – Ruth.

SIS'TER-LY, a.

Like a sister; becoming a sister; affectionate; as, sisterly kindness.

SIS'TRUM, n. [Gr. σειστρον, from σειω, to shake.]

A kind of timbrel which the Egyptian priests of Isis used to shake at the festivals of that goddess. – Brande.

SIS'Y-PHUS, n.

In fabulous history, a robber or traitor notorious for his cunning, and whose crimes were punished by being compelled to roll to the top of a hill, a huge stone which constantly recoiled, and made his task incessant.

SIT, v.i. [pret. sat; old pp. sitten. Goth. sitan; Sax. sitan, or sittan; D. zitten; G. sitzen; Sw. sitta; Dan. sidder; L. sedeo; It. sedere; Fr. seoir, whence asseoir, to set or place, to lay, to assess, from the participle of which we have assise, assize, a sitting, a session, whence size, by contraction; W. seza, to sit habitually; sezu, to seat; gorsez, a supreme seat; gorsezu, to preside; Arm. aseza, diaseza, sizhea, to sit; Ir. suidhim, eisidhim, and seisim; Corn. seadha, to sit. It coincides with the Ch. and Heb. יסד and Heb. שית, to set, place or found, and perhaps with the Ar. سَدَّ sadda, to stop, close or make firm. See Class Sd, No. 31, 56. See Set. The Sp. sitiar, to besiege, is the same word differently applied.]

1. To rest upon the buttocks, as animals; as, to sit on a sofa or on the ground.
2. To perch; to rest on the feet; as fowls.
3. To occupy a seat or place in an official capacity. The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat. Matth. xxiii.
4. To be in a state of rest or idleness. Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? Num. xxxii.
5. To rest, lie or bear on, as a weight or burden; as, grief sits heavy on his heart.
6. To settle; to rest; to abide. Pale horror sat on each Arcadian face. Dryden.
7. To incubate; to cover and warm eggs for hatching; as a fowl. As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not. Jer. xvii.
8. To be adjusted; to be, with respect to fitness or unfitness; as, a coat sits well or ill. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, / Sits not so easy on me as you think. – Shak.
9. To be placed in order to be painted; as, to sit for one's picture.
10. To be in any situation or condition. Suppose all the church lands to be thrown up to the laity; would the tenants sit easier in their rents than now? Swift.
11. To hold a session; to be officially engaged in public business; as, judges, legislators or officers of any kind. The house of commons sometimes sits till late at night. The judges or the courts sit in Westminster hall. The commissioners sit every day.
12. To exercise authority; as, to sit in judgment. One council sits upon life and death.
13. To be in any assembly or council as a member; to have a seat. 1 Macc.
14. To be in a local position. The wind sits fair. [Unusual.] To sit at meat, to be at table for eating. To sit down, to place one's self on a chair or other seat; as, to sit down at a meal. #2. To begin a siege. The enemy sat down before the town. #3. To settle; to fix a permanent abode. Spenser. #4. To rest; to cease as satisfied. Here we can not sit dawn, but still proceed in our search. Rogers. To sit out, to be without engagement or employment. [Little used.] Saunderson. To sit up, to rise or be raised from a recumbent posture. He that was dead sat up, and began to speak. Luke vii. #2. Not to go to bed; as, to sit up late at night; also, to watch; as, to sit up with a sick person.

SIT, v.t.

1. To keep the seat upon. He sits a horse well. [This phrase is elliptical.]
2. To sit me down, to sit him down, to sit them down, equivalent to I seated myself, &c. are familiar phrases used by good writers, though deviations from strict propriety. They sat them down to weep. Milton.
3. “The court was sat,” an expression of Addison, is a gross impropriety.

SITE, n. [L. situs, Eng. seat; from the root of L. sedeo, to sit. The Roman pronunciation was seetus.]

1. Situation; local position; as, the site of a city or of a house.
2. A seat or ground-plot; as, a mill-site. But we usually say, mill-seat, by which we understand the place where a mill stands, or a place convenient for a mill.
3. The posture of a thing with respect to itself. The semblance of a lover fix'd / In melancholy site. – Thomson. [This is improper.]

SI'TED, a.

Placed; situated. [Not in use.] Spenser.

SIT'FAST, n.

A hard knob growing on a horse's back under the saddle. – Far. Dict.