sit-up-and-beg

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English

WOTD – 3 June 2025

Etymology

A beagle sitting up and begging. The position adopted by drivers and riders in some vehicles has been likened to this posture.
A sit-up-and-beg (adjective sense 2) bicycle.
A man in Germany in the 1920s riding a sit-up-and-beg (noun sense 1).

From sit up + and + beg, likening the position to a dog sitting up on its hindquarters and begging by holding its front paws out.

Pronunciation

Adjective

sit-up-and-beg (not comparable) (UK)

  1. (transport) 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.
    • 1968 October 3, New Scientist, volume XL, London: Harrison, Raison and Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 2:
      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.
    • 1979 February, “Yamaha XS100 Special: Cycle World Tests: With Flash or Without, the Eleven is Still Big, Strong and Stable”, in Allan Girdler, editor, Cycle World, volume 18, number 2, New York, N.Y.: CBS Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 118, column 2:
      Handlebars and other controls are supposed to improve control and comfort, they say. Motorcycles are supposed to fit people, not bend the rider into a shape dictated by the whim of fashion. The sit-up-and-beg posture keeps you hanging on against the wind and it's tiring.
  3. (cycling, specifically) 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.
    • 1992, Vivien Walsh, Robin Roy, Margaret Bruce, Stephen Potter, “Perspectives on Design and Innovation”, in Winning by Design: Technology, Product Design and International Competitiveness, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Business, Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, page 33:
      Manufacturers introduced many incremental improvements, By 1930 these changes extended the range of cycles that manufacturers could offer from the ‘roadster’ (steel frame, three-speed hub gears, level-operated brakes and ‘sit-up-and-beg’ handlebars) to lightweight racing bikes (alloy steel frames, ten or more derailleur gears, cable-operated brakes and aluminium alloy drop handlebars).
    • 1999 October, Frank Wrigley, “Thursday 7th July  – The Vicar’s Secret”, in The Boy at Willows End: Growing Up in the Fens in 1940, Dereham, Norfolk: The Larks Press, →ISBN, page 59:
      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.
    • 2007, Gwyneth Daniel, Trevor Daniel: Doing the Right Thing, Christchurch, Dorset: Willows Press, →ISBN:
      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.
    • 2009, Joe Bindloss, Northeast India, 2nd edition, Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet, →ISBN:
      There are no specialist cycle-tour companies based in the northeast, but you can find bicycles for hire for local sightseeing. Expect to pay Rs30 to Rs100 per day for an Indian-made sit-up-and-beg bike.

Translations

Noun

sit-up-and-beg (plural sit-up-and-begs)

  2. (UK, cycling) A bicycle having handlebars that are rather high and curve backwards, so that the rider sits upright rather than hunching forward; a roadster.
    Synonym: (Ireland) high nelly
    • 2001, Charlie Woods, “From Sepia to Vivid Colour”, in Bikie: A Love Affair with the Racing Bicycle, Edinburgh; London: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:
      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.
    • 2007, Josie Dew, “Dannevirke, 12 February ”, in Long Cloud Ride: A Cycling Adventure across New Zealand, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 97:
      Studying my bike in detail he then said, 'That's a good sit-up you've got.' For a moment I thought he thought I was riding a sit-up-and-beg when really I had a touring steed complete with drop handlebars. And then I realised my stumbling block. He had pronounced a very Kiwi sit-up for set-up.
    • 2013, Pete Barry, “The Art of Cycling”, in You’re Having a Larf! Fun Poetry for All the Family, : New Generation Publishing, →ISBN, stanza 1, page 52:
      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!

Translations

References

  1. ^ “sit-up-and-beg, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “sit-up-and-beg, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “to sit up and beg” under “sit, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025.

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