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sit-in

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sit-in

[sit-in]
–noun
1. an organized passive protest, esp. against racial segregation, in which the demonstrators occupy seats prohibited to them, as in restaurants and other public places.
2. any organized protest in which a group of people peacefully occupy and refuse to leave a premises: Sixty students staged a sit-in outside the dean's office.
3. sit-down strike.

Origin:
1955–60; n. use of v. phrase sit in (a place); cf. -in

sit-down strike

–noun
a strike during which workers occupy their place of employment and refuse to work or allow others to work until the strike is settled.
Also called sit-down, sit-in.


Origin:
1930–35, Americanism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sit-in   (sĭt'ĭn')
n.  
  1. An organized protest demonstration in which participants seat themselves in an appropriate place and refuse to move.

  2. The act of occupying the seats or an area of a segregated establishment to protest racial discrimination.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

sit-in 
1936, in ref. to session musicians; 1937, in ref. to union action; 1941, in ref. to student protests.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia

sit-in

a tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience. The demonstrators enter a business or a public place and remain seated until forcibly evicted or until their grievances are answered. Attempts to terminate the essentially passive sit-in often appear brutal, thus arousing sympathy for the demonstrators among moderates and noninvolved individuals. Following Mahatma Gandhi's teaching, Indians employed the sit-in to great advantage during their struggle for independence from the British. Later, the sit-in was adopted as a major tactic in the civil-rights struggle of American blacks; the first prominent sit-in occurred at a Greensboro (North Carolina) lunch counter in 1960. Student activists adopted the tactic later in the decade in demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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