10 Phrasal Verbs with SIT

10 Phrasal Verbs with SIT (with Meanings and Examples)

Phrasal verbs are everywhere in English — in everyday conversations, films, books, and, of course, in Cambridge exams. If you want to sound more natural and confident, you simply can’t avoid them.

In today’s lesson, we’re going to focus on 10 very common and useful phrasal verbs with sit. Some describe posture, some describe inaction, and others describe situations we all recognise from daily life. So, let’s sit down (yes, really) and learn how to use them properly.

Sit about / Sit around

Meaning: to spend your time doing very little or nothing; to be idle.

• I didn’t feel very well yesterday. I was just sitting around, waiting for the evening so I could go to bed.
• You’re wasting your time sitting about instead of looking for a job.

Sit back

Meaning: to sit in a relaxed position, or to stop being actively involved and relax while someone else does the work.

• Just sit back and relax — I’ll make us a nice cup of tea.
• We have a lot of work to do. This is no time to sit back.

Sit by

Meaning: to do nothing to stop something bad, wrong, or unfair from happening.

• We can’t just sit by and watch the violence.
• John couldn’t just sit by and watch his girlfriend cry.

Sit down

Meaning: to move from a standing position to a sitting position.

• Please sit down and make yourself at home.
• James sat down between Mary and Fiona.

Sit for

Meaning: to pose as a model for an artist or a photographer.

• The children will be sitting for a group portrait.
• She sat for a famous painter when she was young.

Sit in for

Meaning: to do someone’s job while they are away or ill.

• Jane will sit in for Martin while he’s on a business trip.
• Ms Jones has flu, so we need to find someone to sit in for her.

Sit on

Meaning: to delay dealing with something (such as a request, application, or problem), often deliberately.

• The HR department has been sitting on my application for months.
• The manager is sitting on the decision instead of doing something about it.

Sit out

Meaning: to stay somewhere and wait for something boring, unpleasant, or difficult to finish.

• The tourists sat out the storm in the shelter.
• She was prepared to sit out the years of her husband’s prison sentence.

Also: to choose not to take part in an activity.

• I think I’ll sit out the next dance.

Sit through

Meaning: to stay until the end of an event, even though it is long or boring.

• I doubt the children will be able to sit through the whole festival.
• We had to sit through a long and rather boring speech at the wedding.

 Common mistake:

❌ I sat in the meeting. (if you mean you stayed until the end)

✔️ I sat through the meeting.

Sit up

Meaning: to move into a sitting position from a lying position.

• Is Grandpa strong enough to sit up on his own?

Also: to stay awake later than usual.

• We sat up late last night playing Risk with the neighbours.

These phrasal verbs with sit appear very often in everyday English, in films, books, and in Cambridge exams. Try to learn them in context and, even better, write a few example sentences of your own.

And remember: you won’t learn English by just sitting around — but you will learn a lot by sitting down and practising a little every day.

Learn 100 phrasal verbs for everyday use and download the PDF here

or visit our bookshop