Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SEAT, v.t.

1. To place on a seat; to cause to sit down. We seat ourselves; we seat our guests. The guests were no sooner seated but they entered into a warm debate. – Arbuthnot.
2. To place in a post of authority, in office, or a place of distinction. He seated his son in the professor's chair. Then high was king Richard seated. – Shak.
3. To settle; to fix in a particular place or country. A colony of Greeks seated themselves in the south of Italy; another at Massilia is Gaul.
4. To fix; to set firm. From their foundations, loosening to and fro, / They pluck'd the seated hills. – Milton.
5. To place in a church; to assign seats to. In New England, where the pews in churches are not private property, it is customary to seat families for a year or longer time; that is, assign and appropriate seats to their use.
6. To appropriate the pews in, to particular families; as, to seat a church.
7. To repair by making the seat new; as, to seat a garment.
8. To settle; to plant with inhabitants; as, to seat a country. [Not much used.] – Stith, Virg.