relax in a comfortable position

Question

Hello,Here's a sentence: "He settled himself down with a newspaper and waited for the train to arrive." Can "himself" be omitted in this sentence? "He settled himself in his usual armchair"?  Two questions. Can "himself" be left out? Can we say "He settled down in his usual armchair."I hope it is not confusing. Thank you

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Gene93"He settled himself down with a newspaper and waited for the train to arrive." Can "himself" be omitted in this sentence?

Yes, and it would probably be better that way.

Gene93 · Answer

Thank you. Is it unnatural to say "He settled in his usual chair"? I was told that without "down", this sentence sounds odd and unacceptable in everyday English. Is that true. It should be "He settled down in his usual chair".

Mister Micawber · Answer

Gene93Is it unnatural to say "He settled in his usual chair"?

No, not at all. That is fine.

Gene93 I was told that without "down", this sentence sounds odd and unacceptable in everyday English. Is that true.

No, that is not at all true.

Gene93It should be "He settled down in his usual chair".

That is OK, too.

Gene93 · Answer

The person I just mentioned said to me: "How can you settle in a chair? That's impossible. You can settle down in it, but you can't settle in it." Even without "down", I think it is pretty clear that the I am going to sit down and relax. I am foreign, though, so it doesn't count.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Gene93The person I just mentioned said to me: "How can you settle in a chair? That's impossible.

I think that person has a limited use of the language. As you can see from the corpus results below, one can settle in most any kind of chair:

...Nikkie just called me' Black Boy,' " Joseph said as he settled in a kitchen chair.
...he'd taken off his green tweed coat, loosened his tie and settled in a chair near his vaporizer
...and wolfing down three bagel halves after hours of rehearsals. Settled in a deep leather chair in a room in the church's basement,
...Once I had Mrs. Davis settled in a chair with her cat in her lap
...She ordered a scotch, neat, and settled in a booth to take in her first sight of Homestead.
...I settled in a folding chair and made a telescope out of my program.
...He pushed a door open, waved, and settled in a revolving desk chair.
...but his only customer was Mr Hitchcock, he said. He settled in a rockingchair with his Lucky Strikes and his own paper,

Wilpeter · Answer

Quote: “How do you settle in a chair?”
I think your friend doesn’t understand the distinctions of ‘settle’ and ‘settle down’ versus ‘sit’. In the wildlife kingdom, birds ‘alight’ on a branch, testing it for security, then lower their wings and remain ‘perched’ on that branch. To me, that’s similar to ‘settling’. ‘Settling down’ indicates to me a longer expectancy of sitting, such as one would expect in a doctor’s office or other waiting room.

relax in a comfortable position

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