sitter

noun

sit·​ter ˈsi-tər 

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

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

2

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

Synonyms

• babysitter
• dry nurse
• nanny
• nannie
• nurse
• nursemaid
• nurser

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

Castillo hired a sitter to watch her two children and arrived at KBDS bright and early at 6 a.m. on April 1 to claim her prize, only to discover she was being awarded a toy truck and not a $60,000 vehicle, according to the East Bay Times. —John Tufts, The Indianapolis Star, 1 Apr. 2024

While this is an extreme example of parents not respecting a sitter’s time, needs, or even safety, there’s definitely an important takeaway for both the sitter and the parents. —Melissa Willets, Parents, 28 Feb. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing sitter

• bed-sitter
• house sitter

Kids Definition

sitter

noun

sit·​ter ˈsit-ər 

: one that sits

especially : a person who babysits

Biographical Definition

Sitter

biographical name

Sit·​ter ˈsi-tər 

Willem de 1872–1934 Dutch astronomer