sedateness 
sedateness (se-dat'nes), H. The state or quality 
of being sedate; calmness of mind, manner, or 
countenance ; composure : placidity ; serenity ; 
tranquillity: as, MdafeMW of temper; sectotmess 
of countenance. 
There is a particular sedateness in their conversation and 
behaviour that qualities them for council. 
Addition, State of the War. 
sedation (se-da'shon), . [< L. netlatio(n-), an al- 
laying or calming)' < sedarc, pp. gedattts, settle, 
appease: see sedate.'] The act of calming. 
The unevenness of the earth is clearly Providence. For 
since it is not ;iny fixed sedation, but a Boating mild varie- 
ty that pleaseth, the hills and valleys in it have all their 
special use. Feltham, Resolves, ii. 8:">. 
sedative (sed'a-tiv), a. and . [< OF. seil/ilif, 
F. sedatif= Sp. Pg. It. sedatiro, < NL. "sedati- 
t'us, < L. sedare, pp. sedatus, compose : see se- 
date.] I. . Tending to calm, tranquilize, or 
soothe; specifically, in med., having the power 
of allaying or assuaging irritation, irritability, 
or pain Sedative salt.boracic acid. Sedative wa- 
ter, a lotion composed of ammonia, spirit of camphor, 
salt, and water. 
II. . Whatever soothes, allays, or assuages; 
specifically, a medicine or a medical appliance 
which has the property of allaying irritation, 
irritability, or pain. 
All its little griefs soothed by natural sedatives. 
0. W. Holmes, Autocrat, vi. 
Cardiac sedatives, medicines which reduce the heart's 
action, such as veratria, aconite, hydrocyanic acid, etc. 
sede 1 !, and v. An obsolete form of seed. 
sede a t. A Middle English form of said. 
SO defendendo (se de-fen-den'do). [L.: se, abl. 
of pers. pron. 3d pers. sing. ; defendendo, abl. 
sing, of gerundive of defendere, avert, ward off: 
see dcfend.~\ In law, in defending himself : the 
plea of a person charged with slaying another 
that he committed the act in his own defense. 
sedellt, . A Middle English form of schedule. 
sedent (se'dent), a. [< L. seden(t-)s, ppr. of se- 
dere, sit: see sit.] Sitting; inactive; at rest. 
Sedentaria (sed-en-ta'ri-a), n. pi. [NL., neut. 
?1. of L. sedentarius, sedentary: see sedentary.] 
. In Lamarck's classification (1801-12), one 
of three orders of Annelida, distinguished from 
Apoda a,n&Antennata, and containing the seden- 
tary or tubicolous worms : opposed to Errantia. 
2. The sedentary spiders : same as Seden- 
taria. 3. A suborder of peritrichous ciliate 
infusorians, containing those which are seden- 
tary, as the Vorticellidse: distinguished from 
Natantia. 
Sedentariae (sed-en-ta'ri-e), n. pi. [NL., fern, 
pi. of L. sedentarius, sedentary: see sedentary.] 
A division of Araiteina, containing those spi- 
ders that spin webs in which to lie in wait for 
their prey ; the sedentary spiders : opposed to 
Errantia. It includes several modern families, 
and many of the most familiar species. 
sedentarily (sed'en-ta-ri-li), adv. In a seden- 
tary manner. Imp. Diet. 
sedentariness (sed'en-ta-ri-nes), . The state 
or the habit of being sedentary. 
Those that live in great towns . . . are inclined to pale- 
ness, which may be imputed to their sedentariness, or want 
of motion ; for they seldom stir abroad. 
L. Addison, West Barbary (1671), p. 113. 
sedentary (sed'en-ta-ri), a. and . [< OF. seden- 
taire, F. sedentaire = Sp. Pg. It. sedentario, < L. 
sedentarius, sedentary, sitting, < seden(t-)s, ppr. 
of sedere, sit : see sedent.] I. a. 1. Sitting; be- 
ing or continuing in a sitting posture ; working 
habitually in a sitting posture. [Rare.] 
She sits unmoved, and freezes to a stone. 
But still her envious hue and sullen mien 
Are in the sedentary figure seen. 
Addi3on, tr. of Ovid's Metamorph., ii. 
When the text of Homer had once become frozen and 
settled, no man could take liberties with it at the risk of 
being tripped up himself on its glassy surface, and landed 
in a lugubrious sedentary posture, to the derision of all 
critics. De Quincey, Homer, i. 
Hence (a) Fixed ; settled ; permanent ; remaining in the 
same place. 
The sedentary fowl 
That seek yon pool, and there prolong their stay 
In silent congress. Wordsworth, Excursion, iv. 
(b) Inactive ; idle ; sluggish : as, a sedentary life. 
The great Expence it [travel upon the king's service] 
will require, being not to remain sedentary in one Place as 
other Agents, but to be often in itinerary Motion. 
Howell, Letters, I. iv. 25. 
I imputed . . . their corpulency to a sedentary way of 
living. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Iviii. 
(c) In zoiil. : (1) Abiding in one place ; not migratory, as 
a bird. (2) Kixed in a tube ; not errant, as a worm ; 
belonging to the Sedentaria. (:S) Spinning a web and ly- 
ing in wait, as a spider ; belonging to the Sedentariie. (4) 
Affixed; attached; not free-swimming, as an infusorian, 
5461 
a rotifer, polyp, cirriped, mollusk, ascidlan, etc. ; specifi- 
cally, belonging to the Sedentaria. (5) Encysted and mo- 
tionless or quiescent, as a protozoan. Compare resting- 
spare. 
2. Accustomed to sit much, or to pass most of 
the time in a sitting posture : hence, secluded. 
But, of all the barbarians, this humour would be least 
seen in the Egyptians : whose sages were not sedentary 
scholastic sophists, like the Grecian, but men employed 
and busied in the public affairs of religion and govern- 
ment. Warburton, Divine Legation, iii. 4. 
3. Characterized by or requiring continuance 
in a sitting posture : as, a sedentary profession ; 
the sedentary life of a scholar. 
Sedentary and within-door arts, and delicate manufac- 
tures (that require rather the finger than the arm), have 
in their nature a contrariety to a military disposition. 
Bacon, True Greatness of Kingdoms, etc. (ed. 18S7). 
4. Resulting from inactivity or much sitting. 
Till length of years 
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs. 
auton, S. A., 1. 571. 
II. .; pi. sedentctiies (-riz). 1. A sedentary 
person; one of sedentary habits. 2. A mem- 
ber of the Sedentarix; a sedentary spider. 
sederunt (se-de'runt). [Taken from records 
orig. kept in Latin: L. sederunt, 3d pers. pi. perf . 
ind. of sedere, sit: see sedent.'] 1. There sat: 
a word used in minutes of the meetings of courts 
and other bodies in noting that such and such 
members were present and composed the meet- 
ing: as, sederunt A. B., C. D., etc. (that is, there 
sat or were present A. B., C. D., etc.). Hence 
2. n. A single sitting or meeting of a court ; 
also, a more or less formal meeting or sitting of 
any association, society, or company of men. 
Tisapity we have not Burns's own account of that long 
sederunt. J. Wilson. 
That fable ... of there being an Association . . . which 
. . . met at the Baron D'Holbach's, there had its blue- 
light sederunts, and published Transactions, . . . was and 
remains nothing but a fable. Carlyle, Diderot. 
Acts Of Sederunt. (a) Ordinances of the Scottish Court of 
Session, under authority of the statute 1540, xciii., by which 
the court is empowered to make such regulation as may be 
necessary for the ordering of processes and the expediting 
of Justice. The Acts of Sederunt are recorded in books 
called Books of Sederunt. (6) A Scotch statute of 1692 re- 
lating to the formalities of publicity in conveying lands. 
sedes impedita (se'dez im-pe-di'ta). [L.: 
sedes, a seat ; impedita, fern, of impeditus, pp. 
of impedire, entangle, hinder, hold fast: see im- 
pede, impedite.'] A term of canon law to desig- 
nate a papal or an episcopal see when there is a 
partial cessation by the incumbent of his epis- 
copal duties. 
sedes vacans (se'dez va'kanz). [L. : sedes, a 
seat; vacans, ppr. of vacare, be vacant: see va- 
cant.'] A term of canon law to designate a pa- 
pal or an episcopal see when absolutely vacant. 
sedge 1 (sej), . [Also dial, (common in early 
mod. E. use) sea; < ME. segge, segg, < AS. secy 
= MD. scggJie = MLG. LG. seggc, sedge, lit. 
' cutter,' so called from the shape of the leaves ; 
< Teut. / seg, sag, cut : see saw 1 . Cf . Ir. seasg, 
seisg = W. liesg, sedge. For the sense, cf. E. 
sword-grass; F. glaieul, < L. gladiolus, a small 
sword, sword-lily, flag (see gladiolus); G. 
schwertel, sword-lily, schwertel-gras, sedge, < 
Sedillot's operation 
schwcrt, a sword.] A plant of the genus Carex, 
an extensive genus of grass-like cyperaceous 
plants. The name is thence extended, especially in the 
plural, to the order Cypemceee, the sedge family. In pop- 
ular use it is loosely comprehensive of numerous ttag- 
like, rush-like, or grassy plants growing in wet places. 
See Carex and Cyperacex. 
The meads, the orchards, and the primrose-lanes, 
Instead of sedge and reeds, bear sugar-canes. 
Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4. 103. 
Thirtie or fortie of the Rapahanocks had so accommo- 
dated themselues with branches, as we tooke them for lit- 
tle bushes growing among the sedge. 
Quoted in Cap*. John Smith's Works, 1. 185. 
No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, 
But, choked with sedges, works its weedy way. 
Goldsmith, Des. Vi]., 1. 41. 
Beak-sedge. See Rhynchospora. Myrtle sedge. See 
7 yrtle. Sweet sedge. Same as sweet-flag. (See also 
cotton-sedge, hammer-sedye, ntU-sedye.) 
sedge'- 2 (sej), n . [A var. of siege (ME. sege), seat, 
sitting: see siege.'] A flock of herons or bit- 
terns, sometimes of cranes. =8yn. Covey, etc. See 
jlocki. 
sedge-bird (sej'berd), . A sedge-warbler. 
Yarrell. 
sedged (sejd), a. [< sedge 1 + -ed 2 .] Composed 
of flags or sedge. 
You nymphs, called Naiads, of the windring brooks, 
With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks. 
SAa*., Tempest, iv. 1.129. 
sedge-flat (sej 'flat), n. A tract of land lying 
below ordinary high-water mark, on which a 
coarse or long sedge grows which cattle will 
not eat. 
sedge-hen (sej'hen), . Same as marsh-hen (ft). 
[Maryland and Virginia.] 
"I've never fished there," Dick interrupted ; "but last 
fall I shot over it with Matt, and we had grand sport. We 
got forty-two sedge-hens, on a high tide." 
St. Xicholas, XVII. 638. 
sedge-marine (sej'ma-ren"), n. The sedge- 
warbler. C. Swainson. [Local, Eng.] 
sedge-warbler (sej'war'bler), n. An acro- 
cephaline bird ; a kind of reed-warbler, specifi- 
cally Sylvia or Calamolierpe or Salicaria oiAcro- 
cephalus phragmitis, or .4. scha-nobeenus, a sedge- 
bird widely distributed in Europe, Asia, and 
(D*o 
e a 
i, the i 
Sedges, 
ale plant of Carex scirpoidea ; 2, the fen 
lie plant of ' . 
rex icirfioidea: 3, the inflorescence of Carex vulpinoidta ; 4, the 
inflorescence of Carex crittita ; 5, schematic view of the female 
flower (.'lx, axis; /tr, bract ; P, perigynium ; K, rachis; f 7 , fruiu. 
a. fruit with the perigynium of Carex scirpoittea ; b, a bract; c, peri- 
gynium of C. criHfta ; it, the achene ; e, a bract. 
Sedge-warbler (Acroctpttnliis phragtnitis). 
Africa, about 5 inches long, rufous-brown above 
and buffy-brown below, frequenting sedgy and 
reedy places. There are many other species of this 
genus, all sharing the name. Also called reed-warbler, 
reed wren, sedge-wren, etc. See reed-thrush, and quotation 
under reeler, 2. 
sedge-wren (sej'ren), n. Same as sedge-warbler. 
sedgy (sej'i), a. [(sedge 1 + -i/ 1 .] 1. Of or per- 
taining to sedge : as, a sedgy growth. 
If they are wild-ducks, parboil them with a large carrot 
(cut to pieces) inside of each, to draw out the fishy or 
sedgy taste. Miss Leslie, Cook-book (ed. 1854), p. 94. 
2. Overgrown or bordered with sedge. 
Gentle Severn's sedgy bank. Shak., I Hen. IV., i. 8. 98. 
To the right lay the sedgy point of Blackwell's Island, 
drest in the fresh garniture of living green. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 11. 
sedigitated (se-dij'i-ta-ted), a. [< L. sedigitus, 
having six fingers on one hand,< sex, six (= E. 
six), + digitus, a finger (see digit), + -ate 1 + 
-erf2.] Same as sexdigitate. Darwin. 
sedile (se-di'le), . ; pi. gedilia (-dil'i-a). [L. 
sedile, a seat, bench, < sedere, sit: see sit.} Ee- 
cles., one of the seats within the sanctuary pro- 
vided originally or specifically for the celebrant 
of the mass (or holy communion) and his assis- 
tants. The sedilia are typically three in number, for the 
use of the priest, the deacon, and the subdeacon, and in 
England are often recesses constructed in the south wall 
of the chancel, and generally enriched with carving. The 
name is sometimes also used for non-structural seats serv- 
ing the same purpose. The singular sedile is little used. 
See cut on following ]i;t^f. 
Sedillot's operation. See operation. 
