Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a set of seats, usually three, provided in some Roman Catholic and Anglican churches for the use of the presiding clergy, traditionally placed on the epistle side of the choir near the altar, and in Gothic-style churches often built into the wall.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Eccles., one of the seats within the sanctuary provided originally or specifically for the celebrant of the mass (or holy communion) and his assistants.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin sedīle, seat, from sedēre, to sit; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • With a suppedaneum and a sedile, breathing was easier and the problem became dehydration and thirst, with the crucified man more likely to die from a combination of thirst and exposure, rather than asphyxia.

    The Shroud Codex Ph.D Jerome R. Corsi 2010

  • A footrest or even a little seat or sedile was fashioned as a block of wood and nailed to the upright crossbeam so the man could rest his buttocks.

    The Shroud Codex Ph.D Jerome R. Corsi 2010

  • Almanac (1676) and we find it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the Cardinals to ascertain that His

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Secundum moenia locus erat frondosis populis opacus, vitibusque sponte natis, tenuis prope aqua defluebat, placide murmurans, ubi sedile et domus Democriti conspiciebatur.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Ingredienti: una discoteca, una tipa drogata, un sedile del water ad alta tecnologia.

    No Fat Clips!!! : CWS: Say No to Dirt 2007

  • Elfride, in turning her head, saw something shine weakly from a crevice in the rocky sedile.

    A Pair of Blue Eyes 2006

  • The same situation similarly described at _Fast_ I 81-82 'iamque noui praeeunt fasces, noua purpura fulget,/et noua conspicuum pondera sentit ebur'; compare as well _Med Fac_ 13 'matrona _premens altum_ rubicunda sedile' and _Met_ V 317 'factaque de uiuo _pressere_ sedilia saxo'.

    The Last Poems of Ovid 43 BC-18? Ovid

  • The Chancel is Early English, with an inserted Perpendicular east window; there is a double sedile under one trefoil arch, and a double piscina in the south wall.

    Ely Cathedral Anonymous

  • Cæsar, expenditures as sedile; and Curio; secures Curio as agent in Rome; unprepared for civil war;

    The Common People of Ancient Rome Studies of Roman Life and Literature Frank Frost Abbott 1892

  • Elfride, in turning her head, saw something shine weakly from a crevice in the rocky sedile.

    A Pair of Blue Eyes Thomas Hardy 1884

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