to sit still
66
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /sɪt stɪl/
:
quedarse quieto
- Please sit still while I take your picture.
- trouble sitting still
- difficulty sitting still
- able to sit still
And I've never seen this boy sit still ever in my life.
- And I've never seen this boy sit still ever in my life.
- May I know if I just sit still for a moment, it'll pass, right?
- Many people complain and say I can't sit still and then I give them a choice.
- When you stick it in a a novel cage, it just sits still.
- Go back to the Bob for literally one night, sit still, don't move.
- She was very fidgety, couldn't sit still, couldn't focus, would fight with her sisters a lot.
- So all you do is sit still and that's it.
- People don't know how to sit still and receive.
- I can't just sit still because I'm not good now.
- You don't have to sit still to experience stillness.
- That's when that's maybe why sitting still is really important.
- I couldn't be like sitting still and like chanting.
- I don't prefer to sit still and and push weights.
- Like you can injure yourself while just sitting still somehow?
- I don't sleep like I can't sit still Watching telly bugs me a little bit.
- We're gonna work on sitting still, I guess, for this.
- this inner stillness with needing to sit still.
- It's like, oh, sit still, look good, be pretty, kind, sit down great.
- Like, I just can't sit still for one second.
Examples
-
Please just stay there and sit still for a couple of minutes.
-
Well, I suggest you just sit still and let them come to you.
-
But from that experience, I learned how to sit still, do nothing and be quiet.
-
All right, sit still, please.
-
I asked you to sit still.
-
If we were quiet and sat still, the animals paid no attention to us.
Academic text (1994) -
Miss Jefferson, please sit still.
-
So all you do is sit still and that's it.
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Just sit still!
-
Just sit still.
Synonyms
133
2.0
Remain in the same place without moving
10
1.5
Not move from a place
Antonyms
How Motionless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to remain motionless while sitting' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'sit' (to rest on the buttocks) with 'still' (not moving). This straightforward compositional pattern follows normal English adjective/particle modification and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Sit still puts two simple words together: the verb sit and the word still, which means 'not moving'. Imagine a child told to sit like a statue while the doctor checks them; that's why sit still means 'to stay very still while sitting'.