seated

1. 1
   adjective

   In a sitting position; occupying a seat rather than standing or lying down.

   The seated guests rose as the bride entered the hall.

   She remained seated throughout the long ceremony, too tired to stand.

   Similarsitting

   Oppositestanding

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of seat.

   The waiter seated the couple near the fireplace.

   Officials seated the delegates according to rank.

   Note

   A regular past form of a verb that always takes an object: one person seats another, or seats themselves. That is the line between seated and sat. You sat down, but the waiter seated you. In the passive, as in "please be seated," the form shades into the adjective for sitting, and only context tells you whether an action or a position is meant.

3. 3
   adjective

   Located or situated in a particular place or position.

   The fortress is seated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea.

   The ancient capital was seated near the mouth of the river.

   Similarsituated, set, perched

4. 4
   adjective

   Firmly fixed or established; settled and confirmed in place.

   The mistrust between the two families is deeply seated.

   Years of practice left the technique firmly seated in her muscle memory.

   Similarrooted, ingrained, embedded, established, fixed

   Note

   Here the fixing is in character rather than in place. James Fenimore Cooper's Precaution (1852) pairs it with ingrafted: everything about the colonel seems "so seated, so ingrafted in his nature." Habits, beliefs and mistrust are what get seated in this way. The word likes an intensifier in front of it, such as so, deeply or firmly, which says how hard the trait would be to remove.

5. 5
   adjective

   Furnished with a seat or seats for occupants to sit on.

   The small theater is seated for nearly two thousand patrons.

   The shuttle is seated for twelve adults and a driver.

   Note

   A furniture-maker's word as often as a builder's: in compounds it names what the seat is made of, as in the "rush-seated chair with a hole in the seat" of Richard Marsh's The Beetle (1897). The material comes first and takes a hyphen. Used of halls or vehicles, the word turns to capacity instead, and it usually takes for and a number.

6. 6
   adjective

   Of a woman's skirt: stretched out and baggy over the buttocks from much sitting while it is worn.

   After a year at the desk, her favorite skirt had become seated and droopy at the back.

   The seated linen skirt sagged unflatteringly whenever she stood up.

   Similarbaggy, saggy

   Note

   Cloth that has taken on the shape of sitting: the fabric at the back of a skirt worn so long in a chair that it bags. It usually comes with a phrase that places the wear, and it can be softened by degree. Sarah Waters's The Night Watch sets it among make-do-and-mend clothes: "her old tweed skirt, rather seated at the back."

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