1
: one that sits: such as
a
: a person who sits for a portrait or a bust
Usually commissioned by the sitters themselves, some images straddle the line between individual portrait and genre scene …—
Naomi Rosenblum
Naomi Rosenblum
b
: a person who takes care of someone or something in the place of a parent, owner, etc.
pet sitters
The next time you hire a sitter [=babysitter], remind your daughter what happened the last time and let her know that you are only a phone call away.—John Rosemond
see also house sitter
John Rosemond2
a
: an easy target
a sitter for enemy submarines
b
sports
: an easy scoring or fielding chance
… missed an absolute sitter in the 44th minute to keep the game scoreless.—Jamie Goldberg
Jamie GoldbergSynonyms
Examples of sitter in a Sentence
They hired a sitter so they could go out.
we'll be going to the movie if we can get a sitter for the kids
Recent Examples on the Web
House does sometimes have trouble connecting her sitters to parents.
—Faith Hill, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2024
Simons had to clear third-party rights with all the sitters before reproducing their images.
—José Criales-Unzueta, Vogue, 12 Feb. 2024
The artist as stylist While painting clothing is a skill all portrait artists must master, Sargent’s relationship to his sitter’s outfits is unique.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 1 Mar. 2024
Webb works as a sitter for the safe house where the CIA had stashed black hat hacker Alexander Renard (Harold Nieves Fisch), who had an extremely gorgeous head of hair and is now extremely dead on Palmer’s (Brian Dietzen) autopsy table.
—EW.com, 26 Feb. 2024
And cryptic paintings by Salomón Huerta from the early 2000s reveal only the back of his sitters’ heads, denying the gaze of the viewer.
—Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2024
Rashford made up for missing a sitter, slotting home to level the score at 3-3 before substitute Amad Diallo spearheaded a counter-attack in the dying seconds of the game, eventually sweeping past Kelleher to give the Red Devils the win in an all-time FA Cup tie.
—Sam Joseph, CNN, 17 Mar. 2024
Sargent’s sitters are sumptuously, often glitteringly dressed.
—Brian T. Allen, National Review, 6 Jan. 2024
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The second gallery, designed to evoke Sargent’s Tite Street studio in London, focuses on his preference for painting sitters clad in black or white.
—Stephanie Sporn, Vogue, 11 Oct. 2023
Faith Hill, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2024
Simons had to clear third-party rights with all the sitters before reproducing their images.
—José Criales-Unzueta, Vogue, 12 Feb. 2024
The artist as stylist While painting clothing is a skill all portrait artists must master, Sargent’s relationship to his sitter’s outfits is unique.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 1 Mar. 2024
Webb works as a sitter for the safe house where the CIA had stashed black hat hacker Alexander Renard (Harold Nieves Fisch), who had an extremely gorgeous head of hair and is now extremely dead on Palmer’s (Brian Dietzen) autopsy table.
—EW.com, 26 Feb. 2024
And cryptic paintings by Salomón Huerta from the early 2000s reveal only the back of his sitters’ heads, denying the gaze of the viewer.
—Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2024
Rashford made up for missing a sitter, slotting home to level the score at 3-3 before substitute Amad Diallo spearheaded a counter-attack in the dying seconds of the game, eventually sweeping past Kelleher to give the Red Devils the win in an all-time FA Cup tie.
—Sam Joseph, CNN, 17 Mar. 2024
Sargent’s sitters are sumptuously, often glitteringly dressed.
—Brian T. Allen, National Review, 6 Jan. 2024
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The second gallery, designed to evoke Sargent’s Tite Street studio in London, focuses on his preference for painting sitters clad in black or white.
—Stephanie Sporn, Vogue, 11 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sitter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near sitter
Cite this Entry
“Sitter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sitter. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sitter
noun
sit·ter
ˈsit-ər 
: one that sits
especially
: a person who babysits
Biographical Definition
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