sit-downn.adj.

1777 J. Hancock Let. 14 Jan. in Coll. N.-Y. Hist. Soc. 1878 (1879) 1 iii. 4142 I long to see you here, and yet you must stay at Philad^a. I have some of your own wine left for you. I wish to have one sit down with you in my poor habitation.

1826 Australian (Sydney) 12 Apr. An assignment of one and all to the watch-house for the night, and a sit-down at the police-office next morning.

1857 Knickerbocker Jan. 40 Mace carrying one end of a trunk, Mary the other, and little Sam coming after with a bundle and a basket, with a sit down and rest at the end of every block.

1861 H. B. Stowe Pearl of Orr's Island I. xii. 104 I am come here for a good sit-down by your kitchen-fire.

1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase iv. 56 ‘A nice sit-down in the lounge,’ said Wimsey, sitting down.

1967 N. Freeling Strike Out 69 The sit-down had done his leg..some good.

1982 J. Sherwood Shot in Arm iii. 32 If Verney wanted to go back..it would mean a sit-down and a cup of tea.

2002 A. Cumming Tommy's Tale (2004) 7 It got a little too intense at one point and we needed to have a little sit-down.

1812 Crit. Rev. 24 App. 526 True, he [sc. Glaucus, a Roman sea-god] was half-fish; but on old gems and bas-reliefs Gierig might have noted that enough of his sit-down remained for him to enjoy that pleasant position whenever he pleased.

1891 Daily Californian (Bakersfield) 24 Apr. They ought to be spanked until their little sit-downs tingle as if with righteous indignation.

2013 G. T. Brideau Time Shifter (e-book, accessed 11 May 2020) 130 My sit-down is getting frostbite.

1868 W. F. Bartlett Let. 13 May in F. W. Palfrey Mem. W. F. Bartlett (1879) 217 I..will not come away without a ‘sit-down’ with you of an hour or two, when I can put you in possession of all the facts.

1907 Proc. 41st Ann. Encampm. Grand Army of Republic Dept. N.Y. 275 I had a sit-down with the President... He wanted to talk about an address which he proposed to deliver on Memorial Day.

1969 D. R. Cressey Theft of Nation x. 233 It took five years and a considerable number of ‘sit-downs’ for him to regain his economic status.

2014 S. Kuhn Kill your Boss xxv. 204 Like me, she probably has to have a sit-down with her superiors to discuss her lack of progress.

1894 D. C. Gilman Organization of Charities 35 At one time in Milwaukee he tried to see how many dinners he could get; he got four dinners and then he stopped. He said they gave what they call ‘Hand-outs’, and they gave out what they call ‘Sit-downs’. He said as long as they did that, these tramps continued to be tramps.

1926 J. Black You can't Win vi. 67 She'll give you a sit-down for yourself, chances are, but bring back a ‘lump’ for us.

1927 F. Niven Queer Fellows iv. 45 There must be houses where we could get a hand-out for sure... We might even get a sit-down.

1936 New Republic 15 July 289/1 Upon the occasions referred to, ‘sit downs’, or invitations to eat at the family table, are more apt to be given.

1898 Jrnl. School Geogr. (U.S.) Oct. 315 At intervals of two miles [in Burma]..are ‘sit-downs’, generally a favorite tree selected because of its dense and wide spreading shade, beneath which all native travellers have their sit-down and smoke.

1936 N.Y. Times 2 Feb. 26/1 The Akron rubber industry's second ‘sit-down’ of the week was in progress today.

1958 Economist 1 Nov. 421/1 The Japanese government has long been irked by the failure of the police to deal effectively with demonstrators who stage sit-downs at American air bases and also inside government offices.

1972 R. Thomas Porkchoppers (1974) xxvi. 228 I spent forty-one days in that place... It was a sit-down and the old man sent me in to sit with them.

1978 Peace News 25 Aug. 3/1 The next day, 2,100 workers turned up for a ‘sit-down’, and another 300 were dismissed.

2000 Irish Times (Nexis) 3 Aug. (World News section) 11 The demonstrators, representing a variety of causes including the anti-death penalty movement, kept the police on the move as they switched their sitdowns from street to street.

1789 E. Wynne Diary 2 Oct. in A. Fremantle Wynne Diaries (1935) I. i. 10 On our return a sit-down supper.

1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 264 Jemima thought we'd better have a regular sit-down supper, in the front parlour.

1897 Westm. Gaz. 4 June 3/1 It seems that the Kitchen Committee..will have nothing to do with an organised sit-down banquet.

1937 H. Jennings et al. May 12th Mass-observ. Day-surveys (1987) i. 52 In the afternoon there will be a sit-down tea for the children and an open-air whist drive for adults.

1941 Irish Times 24 Nov. 5/7 The kitchen's daily average..is 400 to 450 sit-down meals, and about 60 take-away meals.

1945 G. Mitchell Rising of Moon (1996) ii. 19 She had treated us..to a proper sit-down lunch inside a building instead of the usual sandwiches and minerals on a seat in the grounds.

1959 Sears, Roebuck Catal. Spring–Summer 966/2 Ironing Table Designed for stand-up and sit-down ironing.

1978 E. Anderson Place on Corner iii. 61 People working in ‘sit-down’ or white-collar jobs are viewed as ‘having it made’... Though sit-down jobs are believed to be easy, they are thought to be high-paying.

2012 ‘Gentle Author’ Spitalfields Life 322/2 They hired..a paddle steamer to take them on a trip over to Folkestone and back for a sit-down dinner at Dreamland.

1875 Russellville (Arkansas) Democrat 25 Mar. A real sit-down-talk, running over, in a single sitting, half the incidents of ones [sic] life.

1920 Winnipeg Evening Tribune 5 Mar. 2/4 He presided at the ‘sit down’ meeting of the food committee at the city hall early in the strike.

1982 Financial Times 1 Sept. 7/3 While the CBI [= Confederation of British Industry] will not be holding sit down talks with the Prime Minister, the unions will.

2006 L. McIntyre Essentials Govt. Contract Negotiators xii. 115 During the sit-down negotiation session, you'll want to continue to use questions to dig for more information about the other side's position, interests, needs, hidden agendas, and so forth.

1936 Gastonia (N. Carolina) Daily Gaz. 1 Dec. 4/3 New Christmas wrinkle in Christmas toys: Sit-down scooter.

1944 A. J. Liebling Road back to Paris vi. 252 Once I heard one of the other boys say that now that the field had been in operation for six weeks, he thought it was time the men should build a sit-down toilet.

1994 enRoute Nov. 45/1 Blackcomb takes a great leap forward with a new eight-person sit-down gondola that whisks skiers to its upper reaches.

2011 Whitsunday (Queensland) Times (Nexis) 5 May 36 Only 60 watercraft are able to participate in the event as participants need to provide their own sit-down craft which must be no older than a 2004 model.

1949 Chester (Pa.) Times 17 June 2/1 Rankin indicated..that his committee will not consider bills to keep alive the ‘readjustment allowance’ under which ex-GI's without jobs can draw $20 a week for up to 52 weeks. ‘There is a lot of opposition to any continuation of this sit-down money’ he told a reporter.

1976 Canberra Times 17 Mar. 10/7 Government living allowances—what the Aborigines called ‘sit-down money’.

1993 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 16 Sept. Tribal elder Mr Danny Colson says his people do not want ‘sit-down’ money. ‘We're just about sick of handouts... We are sick of paternalism.’

2010 R. Skelton King Brown Country vii. 82 Big card games..usually took place on government payday, when sit-down money and mining royalties flowed into bank accounts.