sit back
Britishverb
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Relax, as in Now that the work's finished, we can just sit back .
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Refrain from interfering or taking part, as in Mom and Dad just sat back and watched Meg try to decide whether or not she should tell on her friends . [Mid-1900s] Also see sit by .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the flip side is also false — that you need only sit back and do nothing, and you’ll get rich.
From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026
“We are not going to sit back and just say we will never sell the Bitcoin.”
From Barron's • May 5, 2026
“I feel like we’ve always been so in the moment of creating and evolving and doing our work, it seems strange to sit back and do a sort of retrospective.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
As Leader of Reform in KCC, I refuse to sit back and do nothing.
From BBC • Mar. 15, 2026
He was supposed to sit back while the Fellerings and Nero vied for the reward?
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
