Noun

(en noun)

The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows) :

...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

The place in which something is situated; a location.

* 1833 , Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory , page 142:

[Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(UK, dated) A position of employment; a post.

* 1913 , , (Sons and Lovers) , Penguin 2006, page 78:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

* 1946 , Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, :

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open need a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack Jack.

A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

Boss, we've got a situation here...

Noun

(en noun)

(label) A place, or spot, in general.

*1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene , II:

*:For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead , / But restlesse walketh all the world around.

(label) A place where a person normally rests; a seat.

*1633 , P. Fletcher, Purple Island :

*:There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads .

(label) A specific place or point on a body or other surface.

*, Bk.VII:

*:Thus they fought two houres& in many stedys they were wounded.

(label) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc.

(label) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm.

*1889 , H. Rider Haggard, Allan's Wife :

*:But of course I could not do this by myself, so I took a Hottentot—a very clever man when he was not drunk—who lived on the stead , into my confidence.

(label) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead .

*1818 , Jane Austen, Persuasion :

*:She was so wretched and so vehement, complained so much of injustice in being expected to go away instead of Anne; Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best right to stay in Henrietta's stead !

*2011 , "Kin selection", The Economist , 31 March:

*:Had Daniel Ortega not got himself illegally on to this year’s ballot to seek a third term, his wife might have run in his stead .

Figuratively, an emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases).

*2010 , Dan van der Vat, The Guardian , 19 September:

*:Though small and delicate-looking, she gave an impression of intense earnestness and latent toughness, qualities that stood her in good stead when she dared to challenge the most intrusive communist society in eastern Europe.