single sitting
1
3.4
- noun
:
en una sola sesión
- A play can be seen by at most a few hundred people at a single sitting, and it takes as much labor to produce the 100th viewing as it does to produce the first.
Examples
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Sam, I could eat 20 to 25 cocktail shrimp in a single sitting, and people are giving me a quarter to a fifth of my total shrimp capacity.
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Since I was in the endurance part of my LSAT training, on Saturdays and Wednesdays I normally took two full LSAT PrepTests in a single sitting.
Blog text (27) -
The survey took 20 to 30 minutes to complete, and participants were required to do so in a single sitting.
Academic text (2009) -
I think Rich would really enjoy plowing through all 7 movies in a single sitting.
Blog text (29) -
In this sense, the short story offers literary geography a strongly practical benefit simply by virtue of being short; the point being that a short story is designed to be read intensively, in a single sitting.
Academic text (2010) -
I read it in a single sitting and was blown away by the intellect that could conceive such a lucid pathway through the maze of human deviousness.
Blog text (21) -
I finished the 280-page book in a single sitting.
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The survey took 20 to 30 minutes to complete, and participants were required to do so in a single sitting.
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Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting?
Synonyms
27
1.0
A period of time when someone sits still
10
3.2
To finish something all at once without taking a break
How Long
663
2.5
1
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'one uninterrupted period' is directly and compositionally derived from 'single' (one) + 'sitting' (a period of being seated or a session). Although a conventional collocation, the meaning follows normal English composition patterns and is easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Single sitting comes from the simple image of single meaning 'one' and sitting meaning sitting down without getting up. Imagine finishing a whole book or a cake in one go while you sit once without any break, and that's why it means 'a single uninterrupted period' spent doing something.