to sit around
350
1.1
- phrasal verb
- /sɪt əˈraʊnd/
- Informal
:
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- When he entered the room, he was shocked to see seven people already sitting around the table.
- just sit around
- sit around the house
- sit around talking
And now he's sitting around thinking that he's dying.
- And now he's sitting around thinking that he's dying.
- It's not too comfortable to sit around and talk shop this way.
- And how did these people sit around and believe all this bullshit?
- It wasn't just the adorable one sitting around the dinner table saying wise things.
- And we all sat around that night and just chatted.
- On some level, I sit around thinking about causality.
- No, because all we do is sit around in sweatpants and watch television.
- I learned more that year from us sitting around listening to albums.
- After, after, after Lincoln died, everyone sat around and they were very sad.
- Well, suppose you're sitting around in today's city.
- And now they're just sitting around sucking his Dick for power.
- Like it's just a bunch of people sitting around like am I right?
- You know I'm not sitting around trying to always be.
- But we're sitting around here not in cars right now.
- Take a second, not live in it, not sit around and say I'm good.
Examples
-
It's not too comfortable to sit around and talk shop this way.
-
I just hate all this sitting around waiting.
-
Most people are sitting around waiting to feel like doing it.
-
We met each week in a different house, sitting around the dining room table with our work.
Academic text (1992) -
We are no longer in tribes sitting around a fire telling a story.
-
The last thing he wanted to do was sit around in cold, wet mud for several hours.
Fiction book (1992) -
We had supper, did the dishes, and then sat around in their living room.
Fiction book (1990) -
And we all sat around that night and just chatted.
-
One day, Jenny, Tom, and I were all sitting around at Kim's house playing some board games.
Academic text (2012) -
On lazy weekends, I love to sit around and read all day.
Synonyms
946
2.4
To spend time relaxing or talking with friends
888
1.5
Spend time without any activity
407
2.0
To stay in a place without doing anything important
111
4.1
To spend time doing playful or unplanned activities
43
3.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
26
5.4
To stand or wait in a place without a clear reason
14
9.1
To spend time relaxing with friends or alone without a plan
12
2.7
To sit or lie in a place and relax
11
7.0
To spend time doing small, not important jobs in a relaxed way
7
4.3
To spend time relaxing and doing very little
5
7.0
To sit or lie in a lazy, relaxed way
5
3.8
To relax and do very little
5
6.5
To spend time doing small, not important tasks slowly without a clear plan
4
7.3
Waste time by acting silly instead of working
4
4.0
To relax comfortably and spend time lazily in a chair or on a sofa
3
5.9
To spend time somewhere doing nothing special
3
7.9
Spend time doing very little or nothing
3
4.4
To stay in a place without a clear reason
3
8.4
To spend time doing not important things in a relaxed way
2
9.9
To sit and do nothing instead of working
2
7.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
2
8.6
To spend time doing very little and moving around without plans
2
9.5
To waste time instead of doing the work you need
1
9.2
To spend time doing small unimportant things instead of working
1
8.7
To waste time doing small unimportant things
1
3.4
To spend time lazily doing little or nothing
1
4.4
To spend time doing very little and relaxing
1
7.7
To spend time doing nothing and not working
1
3.2
To spend time doing nothing
1
6.5
To spend time doing nothing in a lazy way
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
9.9
To waste time doing silly or lazy things instead of useful work
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan
Spend time or money on unimportant things
To pass time by doing something not useful while you wait
Antonyms
How Idle
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to spend time sitting and doing little or nothing' is transparently built from 'sit' (to rest on the buttocks) + 'around' (in the immediate area / about), which together readily convey remaining seated idly in a place. This compositional pattern is common in English phrasal verbs and has parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase sit around comes from the simple picture of people who just sit and stay around a place with nothing to do. So it means 'to spend time doing little or nothing' or 'to wait without acting'.