255 
S I T 
To Sit down. To begin a siege.—Nor would the enemy 
have sate down before it, till they had done their business 
in all other places. Clarendon. 
To Sit down. To rest; to cease as satisfied.—Here we 
cannot sit down, but still proceed in our search, and look 
higher for a support. Rogers. 
To Sit down. To settle; to fix abode.—From besides 
Tanais, the Goths, Huns and Getes sat down. Spenser. 
To Sit out. To be without engagement or employment. 
—They are glad, rather than sit out, to play very small 
game, and to make use of arguments, such as will not prove 
a bare inexpediency. Bp. Sanderson. 
To Sit up. To rise from lying to sitting.—He that was 
dead sat up, and began to speak. St. Luke. 
To Sit up. To watch; not to go to bed. 
Be courtly, 
And entertain, and feast, sit up, and revel; 
Call all the great, the fair and spirited dames 
Of Rome about thee, and begin a fashion 
Of freedom. 
Some sit up late at winter-fires, and fit 
Their sharp-edg’d tools. 
Most children shorten that time by sitting 
company at night. Locke. 
To SIT, v. a. To keep the seat upon. 
Hardly the muse can sit the head-strong horse. 
Nor would she, if she could, check his impetuous force. 
Prior. 
[Wheu the reciprocal pronoun follows sit, it seems to be 
an active verb.] To place on a seat. 
The happiest youth viewing his progress through, 
What perils past, what crosses to ensue. 
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die. Shakspeare. 
He came to visit us, and calling for a chair, sat him down, 
and we sat down with him. Bacon. 
Thus fenc’d. 
But not at rest or ease of mind, 
They sat them down to weep. Milton. 
To be settled to do business: this is rather neuter.—The 
court was sat before Sir Roger came, but the justices made 
room for the old knight at the head of them. Addison. 
SIT A, in Hindoo Mythology, is a celebrated incarnation 
of the goddess Lakshmi, celestial consort of Vishnu, in his 
avatara, or descent in the form of Rama. In the language 
of Hindoo fable, she was his sakti, or energy; and number¬ 
less poems have been written in honour of her beauty, merits, 
and deeds. 
SIT ALA, a river of Mexico, which runs into the Pacific 
Ocean. Lat. 17. 38. N. long. 101. 40. W. 
SITANG, a large river of the Birman empire, province of 
Pegu. It rises in a range of mountains about the 20th de¬ 
gree of northern latitude, passes the ancient city of Pegu, 
and falls into the gulph of Martaban ; but on account of 
shoals, and very strong tides, it is excessively unsafe, and 
therefore little known to Europeans. 
SITE, s. [situs, Lat.] Situation; local position. 
The city self he strongly fortifies, 
Three sides by site it well defenced has. Fairfax. 
Manifold streams of goodly navigable rivers, as so many 
chains, environed the same site and temple. Bacon. —If we 
consider the heart in its constituent parts, we shall find no¬ 
thing singular, but what is in any muscle. ’Tis only the 
site and posture of their several parts that give it the form 
and functions of a heart. Bentley. 
Before my view appear’d a structure fair, 
Its site uncertain if on earth or air. Pope. 
It is taken by Thomson for posture, or situation of a thing 
with respect to itself; but improperly. 
And leaves the semblance of a lover fix’d 
In melancholy site, with head declin’d, 
And love-dejected eyes. Thomson. 
S I T 
SITED, adj. Placed; situated. 
It sited was in fruitful soyle of old, 
And girt in with two walls on either side. Spenser. 
Above were sited the masquers, over whose heads he de¬ 
vised two eminent figures. B. Jonson. 
SI'TFAST, s. A hard knob growing under the saddle. 
Farrier's Diet. 
SITH, cony. [fiSSe, Sax.] Since; seeing that. Obso¬ 
lete. —What ceremony of odours used about the bodies of 
the dead! after which custom notwithstanding, sith it was 
their custom, our Lord was contented that his own most pre¬ 
cious blood should be entombed. Hooker. 
I thank you for this profit, and from hence 
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence. Shakspeare. 
SITIICUNDMAN, in our Old Writers, one whose pro¬ 
vince it was to lead the men of a town or parish. Leg. In on. 
cap. 56. 
Dugdale says, that in Warwickshire the hundreds were 
formerly called sytliecosa, and that sitdesocundman, and 
sitheundman, was the chief officer within such a division, 
i. e. the high constable of the hundred. 
■ SITHE, s. Time. Obsolete. —A thousand sithes I curse 
that carefull houre. Spenser. 
The foolish man thereat woxe wondrous hlith,— 
And humbly thanked him a thousand sith. Spenser. 
SITHENCE, adv. [p<5San, pSSen, Saxon. Chaucer, 
sithenf Since; in latter times.—This over-running and 
wasting of the realm was the beginning of all the other evils 
which sithence have afflicted that land. Spenser. 
SITHESOCA, in our Old Writers, is used to denote the 
district now called a hundred. The word is Saxon, signify¬ 
ing a franchise, or liberty. 
SltHNEY, a parish of England, in Cornwall; 2f miles 
north-west of Helstone. Population 1552. 
SITIGNAK, one of the Fox islands, in the North Pacific 
Ocean. Lat. 53. 30. N. long. 117. 14. E. 
SITIPITI, a river of Peru, in the province of Pataz, which 
runs north, and joins the Maxamerique, to enter the Pangon. 
SITOE, Cape, a cape on the west coast of the island of 
Sumatra, Lat. 2. 12. N. long. 97. 11. E. 
SITON^E, [fnavou, Gr.] among the Athenians, officers ap¬ 
pointed to lay in com for the use of the city, for which 
purpose the ra^ure? T-ijq dioiKyo-eus, or the public treasurer, 
was to furnish them with as much money as they had occa¬ 
sion for. Potter. 
SITONES, the name of one of the three principal classes 
of people who inhabited Scandinavia, beyond mount Savos, 
and bounded by the sea to the west and to the south. 
SITOPHYLAX, 2rroptAa|, formed from uil o?, corn, and 
<pv\a.^, keeper, in Antiquity, an Athenian magistrate, who 
had the superintendance of the corn; and was to take care 
that nobody bought more than was necessary for the provi¬ 
sion of his family. 
SITTA, the Nuthatch, in Ornithology, a genus of birds 
of the order Picas, of which the Generic Character is, hill 
subulate, roundish, straight, entire; the upper mandible is 
a little longer, compressed, and angular at the tip; tongue 
jagged, short, horny at the tip; the nostrils are small, co¬ 
vered with bristles; the feet are formed for walking; the 
hind-toe is long. Gmelin reckons twelve. 
1. Sitta Europse, or European nuthatch.—Cinereous, be¬ 
neath reddish; the tail-featfiers black; the four lateral ones 
beneath are tipt and white. It weighs nearly an ounce; its 
length is five inches; the bill is strong and straight, and 
about three-quarters of an inch long; the upper mandible is 
black, the lower white; the irides hazel; the crown of the 
head, back, and coverts of the wings, are of a fine blueish- 
grey ; a black stroke passes over the eye from the mouth; 
the cheeks and chin are white; the breast and belly are of a 
dull orange-colour; the quill-feathers are dusky; the wings 
underneath are marked with two spots, one white, at the 
root of the exterior quills, the other black, at the joint of 
the bastard-wing; the tail consists of twelve feathers, the 
two 
B. Jonson. 
May. 
up with the 
