sitting

noun

1. A period during which one is seated for a specific purpose.

   “Due to the sheer volume of guests, we had to have two sittings for the meal.”

   “The Queen had three sittings for her portrait.”

2. A seance or other session with a medium or fortuneteller.

   “"It's not always easy to get him, and of course a small fee, a guinea I think, is usual, but if you wanted a sitting I could work it." "You think him genuine?" Atkinson shrugged his shoulders.”

3. A special seat allotted to a seat-holder, at church, etc.
4. The part of the year in which judicial business is transacted.
5. A legislative session (in the sense of meeting, and not period).
6. The incubation of eggs by a bird.
7. A clutch of eggs laid by a brooding bird.

   “we have thirty-four chicks from eight sittings of eggs”

8. (idiomatic)An uninterrupted application to anything for a time; the period during which one continues at anything.

   “I read it in two sittings.”

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of sit

adj

1. (not-comparable)Executed from a sitting position.
2. (not-comparable)Occupying a specific official or legal position; incumbent.

   “Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.”

   “It is an iron rule of French politics that sitting presidents are detested.”