sist 
proceedings, or process, to delay judicial proceedings 
in a cause: used in both civil and ecclesiastical courts. 
sist (sist), M. [< sist, t;] In Xcotx Inn; the act 
of legally staying diligence or execution on de- 
crees for civil debts Sist on a suspension, in the 
Court of Session, the order or injunction of the lord or- 
dinary prohibiting diligence to proceed, where relevant 
grounds of suspension have been stated in the bill of sus- 
pension. See suspension. 
sistencet(sis'teus), . [<sist + -ence.] A stop- 
ping; a stay; "a halt. [Rare.] 
Extraordinary must be the wisdomeof him who floateth 
upon the streame of Soveraigne favour, wherein there is 
seldome any sistencf 'twixt sinking and swimming. 
Howell, Vocall Forrest, p. 122. (Dairies.) 
Sister (sis'ter), H. and a. [< ME. sinter, sistir, 
systei; soster, suster, sustre, muster, zoster (pi. 
sistris, sistren, sitstren, sostreii), < AS. sweostor, 
swustor=OS. swestar = OFries. swestcr, suster = 
MD. suster, D. suster (dim. zitsje) = MLG. si<xt-i- 
= OHG. sweater, MHG. swester, suester, suister, G. 
schwester = Icel. si/stir = Sw. syster = Dan. soster 
= Goth, swistar (Teut. *swestar, with unorig. 
t) = Russ. Bohem. sestra = Pol. siostra = Lith. 
ses& (for *sweso) (gen. sesers) = L. soror (for 
older *sosor) (> It. sorore (soretla) = Sp. sor = 
Pg. sor, soror = Pr. sor, seror = OF. sorur, se- 
rour, suer, seur, sa j ur, F. sceur), sister, = Skt. 
svasar, sister; origin unknown. Cf. brother, 
father, mother 1 . From the L. soror, through 
eonsobrinus, is ult. E. cousin.'] I. . 1. A fe- 
male person in her relation to other children 
born of the same parents; a female relative in 
the first degree of descent or mutual kinship; 
also, a female who has attained a corresponding 
relation to a family by marriage or adoption : 
correlative to brother: often used as a term of 
endearment. 
Huo thet deth the wyl of myne under of heuene, he is 
my brother and my zoster and my moder. 
Ayenbite oj Inwyt (E. E. T. S.), p. 89. 
Duch. Farewell.oldGaunt: thy sometimes brother's wife 
With her companion grief must cud her life. 
Gaunt. Suiter [sister-in-law], farewell. 
Shak., Rich. II., 1. 2. 56. 
And the sick man forgot her simple blush, 
Would call her friend and sister, sweet Elaine. 
Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 
2. Metaphorically, a woman of one's own faith, 
church, or other religious community. 
Whoever seeks to be received into the gild, being of the 
same rank as the bretheren and sisteren who founded it, 
. . . shall bear bis share of its burdens. 
English Gilds (E. E. T. 8.), p. 178. 
I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant 
of the church which is at Cenchrea. Rom. xvi. L 
The Miss Linnets were eager to meet Mr. Tryan's wishes 
by greeting Janet as one who was likely to be a sister in 
religious feeling and good works. 
George Eliot, Janet's Repentance, xxv. 
3. In the Roman Catholic and some other 
churches, a member of a religious community or 
order of women ; a woman who devotes herself 
to religious work as a vocation : as, sisters of 
mercy. See sisterhood, 2. 4. That which is 
allied by resemblance or corresponds in some 
way to another or others, and is viewed as of 
feminine rather than masculine character. 
There is in poesy a decent pride 
Which well becomes her when she speaks to prose, 
Her younger sister. Young, Night Thoughts, v. 66. 
Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay. 
Tennyson, Love thou thy Land. 
Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. See bUl3. Lay sister. 
See lay*. Oblate Sisters of Providence. See oblate, 1 
(). Pricket's sister. See pricket. Sister converse. 
Same as lay sister. Sisters of Charity. See charity. 
Sisters of Loreto. See Lorettine. Sisters of Mercy. 
See sisterhood. The Silent Sister. See silent. The 
Three Sisters, the Fatal Sisters, the Fates or Pares. 
The young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies 
and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches 
of learning, is indeed deceased. Shale., M. of V., ii. 2. 68. 
Whose thread of life the fatal sisters 
Did twist together. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, I. L 275. 
II. . Standing in the relation of a sister, 
whether by birth, marriage, adoption, associa- 
tion, or resemblance; akin in any manner; 
related. 
Thus have I given your Lordship the best Account I 
could of the Sister-dialects of the Italian, Spanish, and 
French. Howell, Letters, ii. 59. 
Sister keelson. See keelson. Sister snips, ships built 
and rigged alike or very nearly so. 
Sister (sis'ter), i'. [< sister, n.] I. trans. 1. To 
be a sister or as a sister to ; resemble closely. 
She . . . with her neeld composes 
Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry, 
That even her art sisters the natural roses. 
Shah., Pericles, v., Prol., 1. 7. 
2. To address or treat as a sister. 
5658 
How artfully, yet, I must own, honourably, he reminds 
her of the brotherly character which he passes under to 
her! IJow officiously he sisters her! 
liichard*un, *ir Charles Urandison, II. xxxii. 
II. in trans. To be a sister or as a sister; be 
allied or contiguous. 
A hill whose concave womb re- worded 
A plaintful story from a sisteriny vale. 
Shak., Lover's Complaint, 1. 2. 
sister-block (sis'ter-blok), . A block with two 
sheaves in it, one above the other, used on board 
ship for various purposes. 
sisterhood (sis'ter-hud), n. [< ME. sasterIm//< ; 
< aister + -hood.] 1. The state of being a sis- 
ter; the relation of sisters; the office or duty 
of a sister. 
Phedra hir yonge suster eke, . . . 
For susterhode and companR* 
Of loue, whiche was hem betwene. 
To see hir suster be made a quene. 
Hir fader lefte. Gower, Conf. Amant., v. 
When the young and healthy saw that she could smile 
brightly, converse gayly, move with vivacity and alertness, 
they acknowledged in her a sisterhood of youth and health, 
and tolerated her as of their kind accordingly. 
Charlotte Erontt, Professor, xviil. 
2. Sisters collectively, or a society of sisters; in 
religious usage, an association of women who 
are bound by monastic vows or are otherwise 
devoted to religious work as a vocation, in the 
Roman Catholic Church the members of a sisterhood 
may be bound by the irrevocable vows of poverty, chas- 
tity, and obedience, and are then called nuns, or may 
be merely under one rule and bound by revocable vows. 
In the Church of Euglaud and its offshoots there are 
also sisterhoods, the members of which either take a rev- 
ocable vow of obedience to the rule of their association, 
or live under the rule of the order without vow. Among 
the more important of the sisterhoods are the Sisters 
of Charity (see charity), the School Sisters of Notre 
Dame, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Sisters of the 
Assumption, the Congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame, 
the Anglican Sisterhoods of St. John the Baptist, of the 
Holy Communion, of St. llary, etc. The Sisters of Mercy 
is an order founded in 1827 in Dublin, with purposes 
analogous to those of the Sisters of Charity. The vows 
are for life. A similar sisterhood in the Church of Eng- 
land was founded about 1845 for assisting the poor. It 
consists of three orders those who live in community 
actively engaged in assisting the poor, those who live in 
community but are engaged In devotions and other se- 
cluded occupations, and those not living in the commu- 
nity but assisting it as co-workers. There are also a num- 
ber of somewhat similar organizations in the Episcopal 
Church in the United States. 
A very virtuous maid, 
And to be shortly of a sisterhood. 
Shak., M. for M., ii. 2. 21. 
O peaceful Sisterhood, 
Receive, and yield me sanctuary. 
Tennyson, Guinevere. 
sister-hook (sis'ter-huk), n. Xaiit., one of a 
pair of hooks work- 
ing on the same axis 
and fitting closely 
together : much used 
about a ship's rig- 
ging. Also clip-hook, 
clore-hook. 
sister-in-law (sis'- 
ter-in-la'),H. [<ME. 
si/ster yn lawe, sis- 
tir elaice: see sister, 
'!. law 1 .] A hus- 
band's or wife's sis- s <*'**>- ~* ^ *~>- 
ter; also, a brother's wife. See brother-in-law. 
sisterless (sis'ter-les), a. [< sister + -less.] 
Having no sister. 
Sisterly (sis'ter-li), n. [= D. zusterlijk = G. 
schwesterlich = Sw. systerlig = Dan. sosterliy ; 
as sister + -ly 1 .] Pertaining to, characteris- 
tic of, or befitting a sister. 
Release my brother ; . . . 
My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour. 
Shale., M. for M., v. 1. 100. 
We hear no more of this sisterly resemblance [of Chris- 
tianity] to Platonism. 
Warburton, Bolingbroke's Philosophy, iii. 
sit 
sistren, . An obsolete or dialectal plural of 
iMtr 1 . 
sistrum (sis'trum), n. [L., < Gr. aeiarpov, < 
aticti; shake.] A musical instrument much 
used in ancient Egypt and other Ori- 
ental countries. It was a form of rattle, 
consisting of an oval frame or rim of metal 
i-unying several rods, which were either loose 
or fitted with loose rings. In either case the 
sound was produced by shaking, so that the 
rods might rattle or jingle. It was an attri- 
bute of the worship of Isis, and hence was 
commonly ornamented with a figure of the 
sacred cat. 
Mummius . . . said, 
Rattling an ancient sistrum at his head : 
"speak'st thou of Syrian princes? Traitor 
base ! " Pope, Dunciad, iv. 374. 
Sisura, . See Seisura. 
Sisymbrieae (sis-im-brl'e-e), n. pi. [NL. (End- 
licher, 1836), < Sisymbrium + -ex.~\ A tribe of 
polypetalous plants, of the order C'ruciferse. It 
Is characterized by a narrow elongated pod or silique, with 
the seeds commonly in one row, and the seed-leaves incum- 
bent and straight or in a few genera convolute or trans- 
versely plicate. It includes 21 genera, of which Sisym- 
brium is the type, chietly plants of temperate regions. See 
Sisymbrium, Hesperis, and Eryrimum. 
Sisymbrium (si-sim'bri-um), n. [NL. (Tour- 
net'ort, 1700). < Gr. oiciiujlptov, a name applied 
to certain odorous plants, one said to be a 
crucifer, another Mentha aquatica.] A genus 
of cruciferous plants, type of the tribe fiisym- 
briese. It is characterized by annual or biennial smooth 
or hairy stems ; flowers with free and unappendnged sta- 
mens, and a roundish and obtuse or slightly two-lobed stig- 
ma; and linear sessile pods, usually with three-nerved 
valves and many oblong seeds with straight cotyledons. 
It Is destitute of the two-parted bristles found in the re- 
lated genus Erysimum, which also dilt ers in its linear or ob- 
long leaves. Besides a great number of doubtful species, 
about 90 are recognized as distinct. They are natives <-s- 
peciallyof central and southern Europe. Siberia, and west- 
em Asia as far as India ; a few are found in temperate and 
subarctic North America, and a very few in the south- 
ern hemisphere. They bear a stellate cluster of radical 
leaves^ and numerous alternate stem-leaves which are usu- 
ally clasping and irregularly lobed or pinnately divided. 
The flowers are usually borne in a loose bractless raceme, 
and are commonly yellow. The various species simulate 
the habit of many widely dilferent genera. A few, con- 
stituting the subgenus Arabidopgis (A. P. de Candolle, 
1821), have white, pink, or purplish flowers; two others, 
by some separated as a genus AUiaria (Adanson, 1763), 
have also broad or triangular heart-shaped undivided 
leaves, as S. AUiaria, the hedge-garlic. For S. ojflcinale, 
see hedge-mustard (sometimes used also for any plant of 
the genus); for S. Sophia, see herb-ttophia ; and for S. Irio. 
see London-rocfret . S. canescens is the tansy-mustard of 
the western United States, and S. Thaliana the mouse-ear 
cress of Europe, naturalized in the eastein United States. 
Sisyphean (sis-i-fe'an), a. [< Gr. Ziai-jeiof, also 
2;oi'0;of, pertaining to Sisyphus, < Siou^of (sup- 
posed to be connected with co0<Jc), L. Sisyphus, 
(see def. ).] Relating or pertaining to Sisy- 
phus, in Greek mythology, a king of Corinth, 
whose punishment in Tartarus for his crimes 
consisted in rolling a huge stone to the top of 
a hill, whence it constantly rolled down again, 
thus rendering his labor incessant; hence, re- 
curring unceasingly : as, to engage in a Sisy- 
phean task. 
Sisyrinchieae (sis'i-ring-ki'e-e), w. pi. [NL. 
(Bentham and Hooker, 1883), < Sisyrinchium + 
-ex.] A tribe of monocotyledonous plants of 
the order Iridese. It is characterized by commonly 
terminal or peduncled spathes, by concave or keeled bracts 
within the spathe and opposite to the two or more usually 
pedicelled flowers, and by style-branches alternate with 
the anthers or borne on a style which is longer than the 
stamens. It includes 26 genera, classed in 4 subtribes, of 
which Crocus, Cipura, Sisyrinchium. and Aristea are the 
types. The nrat, the Crocese, are exceptional in their one- 
flowered spathes ; they are largely South African and Aus- 
tralian. The Cipurex and a few genera besides are Amer- 
ican. The tribe includes both bulbous plants, as the cro- 
cus, and others with a distinct creeping or upright root- 
stock, which is, however, in a larger number reduced to a 
cluster of thickened fibers. See Patersonia and Pardon- 
thus. 
Sisvrinchium (sis -i- ring 'ki-um), . [NL. 
Sistine (sis'tm), a. [= F. Stshne, < It. Suttuo, ( T *, urae fort, 1700), transferred by Linnteus 
pertaining to Sisto, or Sixtus, the name ot five 
popes, < L. sextus, ML. also siitus, sixth: see 
sixth.'] Of or pertaining to any pope of the 
name of Sixtus, especially to Sixtus IV. (1471- 
1484) and Sixtus V. ( 1 585 -90). Also Sixtine. 
Sistine Chapel, the chapel of the Pope in the Vatican at 
Rome, famous for its frescoes by Michelangelo. Sistine 
choir, the choir connected with the court of the Pope, con- 
sisting of thirty-two choristers selected anddrilled with the 
greatest care. The effects produced preserve to a remark- 
able degree the traditions of the style of Palestrina. It is 
now almost disbanded, singing only on the rare occasions 
when the Pope himself participates in the ceremonies. 
Sistine Madonna, or Madonna of San Sisto, a famous 
painting by Raphael, in his last manner (1520), represent- 
ing the Virgin and Child in glory, with the Pope Sixtus 
on the left, St. Barbara on the right, and two cherubs (very 
familiar in engravings, etc., separate from the remainder 
of the picture) below. It ranks as the chief treasure of 
the great museum of Dresden. 
from the iris; < Gr. aiavpiyxiov, a bulbous plant, 
said to have been of the iris family.] A genus 
of plants of the order Iridex, type of the tribe 
,s'i.si/r(Hf/'fand of the subtribe EvsisyrincMea. 
It is characterized by round or two-edged stems without 
a bulbous base, rising from a cluster of thickened fibers; 
flowers with the filaments commonly partly united into a 
tube, and with three slender undivided style-branches; 
and a globose ovary which becomes an exserted capsule in 
fruit. There are about 50 species, all American, occurring 
both in the tropical and in the temperate zones, one species 
also indigenous in Ireland. They are tufted plants with nu- 
merous flat, long, and narrow upright leaves which are all 
or mostly radical, and usually a single spathe with numer- 
ous open flatfish flowers. The two species of the eastern 
I'nited States, S. anijust\folium and 5. ancep*, are known 
as blue-eyed grass, from the flowers. See rush-lily. 
sit (sit), r. ; pret. sat (formerly also set, now only 
dialectal, and sate, still used archaically), pp. 
