Chapter Sing Out to Six of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Sisyphus (Latin; Sisuphos, Greek). A fraudulent avaricious king of Corinth, whose task in the world of shades is to roll a huge stone to the top of a hill, and fix it there. It so falls out that the stone no sooner reaches the hill-top than it bounds down again.

Sit Bodkin (To). (See Bodkin .)

Sit Out (To). To remain to the end. Not to join, as “to sit out a dance.”

Sit Under ... (To). To attend the ministry of ...

“On a Sunday the household marched away in separate groups to half-a-dozen edifices, each to sit under his or her favourite minister.”- W. M. Thackeray.

Sit Up (for anyone) (To). To await the return of a person after the usual hour of bed-time.

“His own maid would sit up for him.”- George Eliot.

Sit Upon (To). To snub, squash, smother, set down; the Latin insideo. Charlotte Brontë, in Shirley (xxviii.), uses a phrase which seems analagous: Miss Keeldar says she mentioned the mischance to no one- “I preferred to cushion the matter.”

“Mr. Schwann and his congeners should be most energetically sat upon by colleagues and opponents alike, by everyone, in fact, who has the welfare of the empire at heart.”- The World, April 6th, 1892, p. 19.

Sit on the Rail or Fence (To). To refuse to promise your support to a party; to reserve your vote.

“In American slang, he was always sitting on the rail between Catholics and Huguenots.”- The Times.

Sit on Thorns (To) or on Tenterhooks. To be in a state of anxiety, fearful that something will go wrong.

Sita Wife of Râma or Vishnu incarnate, carried off by the giant Ravana. She was not born, but arose from a furrow when her father Janaka, King of Mithila, was ploughing. The word means “furrow.”

Sitting in Banco The judges of the courts of law at Westminster are said to be “sitting in banco” so long as they sit together on the benches of their respective courts- that is, all term time. Banco is the Italian for “bench.”

Sieve and Shears (See under Oracle .)

Siva (Indian). The destroyer who, with Brahma and Vishnu, forms the divine trinity of the Brahmins. He has five heads, and is the emblem of fire. His wife is Parvati or Parbutta (Sanscrit, auspicious).

Six Six thrice or three dice. Everything or nothing. “Caesar aut nullus. ” The Greeks and Romans used to play with three dice. The highest throw was three sixes, and the lowest three aces. The aces were left blank, and three aces were called “three dice.” (See Caesar .)