sit-up-and-beg

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Of a posture adopted by a person steering a vehicle (such as an aeroplane, car, or…

   Of a posture adopted by a person steering a vehicle (such as an aeroplane, car, or motorcycle): sitting up straight, not bent forward or leaning back.

   • The pilot is thus in a sit-up-and-beg attitude and so seriously exposed to the elements that, as Wing Commander Wallis admits, a hailstorm would probably mean a forced landing.
2. 2

   Of a bicycle

   Of a bicycle: having handlebars that are rather high and curve backwards, so that the rider sits upright rather than hunching forward; also, of the handlebars of a bicycle: rather high and curving backwards, thus requiring the rider to sit upright.

   • The four boys, now safely sitting on the plinth of the War Memorial, turned their attention to the sight of the Vicar who was cycling along the street on his sit-up-and-beg bicycle.
   • To replace my first (secondhand sit-up-and-beg) bike, he insisted that I had another, bigger one. He'd painted it bright blue, the colour of the cover to this book.
3. 3

   A bicycle having handlebars that are rather high and curve backwards, so that the rider…

   A bicycle having handlebars that are rather high and curve backwards, so that the rider sits upright rather than hunching forward; a roadster.

   • I hadn't even found a proper bike shop – the one I did come across was full of the equivalent of our sit-up-and-begs.
   • Bicycles over many years have been bought / Something the inventor would never have thought! / From the sit up and begs that left you all shaken / From the old penny farthings did cycles awaken!

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