seat
seat / sēt/ • n. 1. a thing made or used for sitting on, such as a chair or stool. ∎ the roughly horizontal part of a chair, on which one's weight rests directly. ∎ a sitting place for a passenger in a vehicle or for a member of an audience: we have a fairly small theater with about 1,300 seats. ∎ a place in an elected legislative or other body: he lost his seat in the 1998 election. ∎ a site or location of something specified: Washington, the seat of the federal government. ∎ short for country seat. ∎ short for county seat. ∎ a part of a machine that supports or guides another part.2. a person's buttocks. ∎ the part of a garment that covers the buttocks. ∎ a manner of sitting on a horse: he's got the worst seat on a horse of anyone I've ever seen.• v. [tr.] arrange for (someone) to sit somewhere: he seated her next to her husband. ∎ (seat oneself or be seated) sit down: she invited them to be seated| [as adj.] (seated) a dummy in a seated position. ∎ (of a place such as a theater or restaurant) have seats for (a specified number of people): a large tent that seats 100 to 150 people. ∎ [tr.] fit in position: upper boulders were simply seated in the interstices below.PHRASES: by the seat of one's pants inf. by instinct rather than logic or knowledge.take one's seat sit down, typically in a seat assigned to one.DERIVATIVES: seat·less adj.