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Glite Dictionary
🚫 To not join ⏳ To endure
to sit out

to sit out

2 3.9
Stay in a place or situation until something boring ends
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : quedarse hasta el final
  • And closer to evening, the old woman sat out on the porch with her wine and chocolate and the sun behind the trees, the branches in strong tangled shadow.

Examples

  • They're forced to sit out here all day and just kind of take the sun.

  • I'm just going to sit out here for a few minutes quietly and see what happens.

  • People who know what's coming can prepare to sit out the worst of it.

    Blog text (26)

  • Rondo appeared at full strength after sitting out a loss at Brooklyn on Thursday night.

    Blog text (19)

  • What we do at night is we sit out on our deck and yesterday we sat out here and we have this little notebook that we wrote all of our goals on.

  • I decided to sit out the movie because I had already seen it.

  • During the thunderstorm, we chose to sit out in the safety of the house until it passed.

  • Rather than attend the party, she preferred to sit out and finish her homework.

Synonyms

to stick around
vsto sit out
  • Informal
332 2.9

Stay in a place to wait for something

remains until an unpleasant situation ends instead of waiting idly
to wait out
vsto sit out
42 4.3

Stay where you are until bad weather or danger passes

endures through the whole period rather than just waiting for it to pass
to sit through
vsto sit out
37 3.0

Stay until the end of something boring or unpleasant

endures unpleasant or boring situations until they finish

Antonyms

to leave early
66 1.0

Go away from a place before the usual or expected time

How Patient

to the bitter end
  • Informal
8 5.5
to endure
304 3.5
to sit out
2 3.9
to tolerate
290 3.5

Surface Forms

sit out infinitive
sitting out present participle
sits out third person singular
sat out past
sat out past participle

Morphology

sit + out

The meaning 'to not take part in an activity' is directly derivable from combining 'sit' (to remain in place) with 'out' (outside/not participating); the particle 'out' here conveys exclusion from the action. This compositional pattern is a common, predictable phrasal-verb meaning in English and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would likely infer the meaning.

Etymology

Sit out The phrasal verb sit out comes from the simple image of someone who is sitting in one place and waiting out a storm or a long, boring meeting, so it means 'remain until it is finished'.