Meaning & use
settee
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritish
A long soft seat with a back and arms, big enough for two or more people.
Grammar: A countable noun: one settee, two settees.
Patterns
- sit on a settee
- a two-seater settee
- a leather settee
They bought a new settee for the living room and moved the old one upstairs.
I fell asleep on the settee while watching the film.
The settee is too wide to fit through the doorway.
Word forms
| plural | settees |
|---|
Common combinations
- sit on the settee
- She likes to sit on the settee with a book in the afternoon.
- a comfortable settee
- The waiting room has a comfortable settee near the window.
- a two-seater settee
- A two-seater settee fits nicely in a small flat.
- a leather settee
- They spilled juice on the new leather settee.
- an old-fashioned settee
- My grandmother's old-fashioned settee has wooden legs.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- settee bed noun
- A settee that folds out into a bed for sleeping.
Commonly confused: settee or settle? settee or seat?
settee vs settle
Settle is a verb meaning to end an argument or start living somewhere; settee is only the piece of furniture.
settee vs seat
A seat is any place you sit, such as a chair or a bench; a settee is a specific long, soft piece of furniture.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'settee' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Settee' is a countable noun for a long soft seat, so 'on the settee' fits. The other options wrongly use it as a verb or confuse it with 'settle'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “settee”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.