to sit on
Preserved but no longer current.
Also seen as: to sit upon
To snub, squash, smother, put in his place. Sit on has other meanings also; thus to sit on a corpse is to hold a coroner's inquest on it; to sit on the bench is to occupy a seat as a judge or magistrate.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to sit on” mean?
To snub, squash, smother, put in his place. Sit on has other meanings also; thus to sit on a corpse is to hold a coroner's inquest on it; to sit on the bench is to occupy a seat as a judge or magistrate.
Is “to sit on” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.