stand by

See also: stand-by and standby

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

stand by (third-person singular simple present stands by, present participle standing by, simple past and past participle stood by)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To wait in expectation of some event; to be ready.

   Synonyms: hang on, stay; see also Thesaurus:wait

   Please stand by for more instructions.

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. […] You stand by, Janet, and wake me up if they do any of that running commentary stuff.”

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To remain loyal or faithful to.

   Synonyms: (UK, idiomatic) go to the wall for someone; keep faith

   Even though money is scarce sometimes, Ann stands by her decision to be a full-time mother.

   • 2014 August 20, “Why Jews are worried [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     [W]hen a Hamas spokesman recently stood by his statement that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children for their matzos – one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards around – European elites were largely silent.

3. (idiomatic, transitive) To support; to continue to support despite things being bad.

   Synonym: uphold

   They stood by us all along and it's awesome to see them out here to support us today.

4. (intransitive) To do nothing. To be inactive in a situation.

   Synonyms: lallygag, waste time; see also Thesaurus:loiter

   I can't simply stand by and watch you ruin your life.

Descendants

• → Cebuano: estambay, tambay
• → Tagalog: istambay, tambay
  • → English: tambay

Translations

to wait in expectation of some event

• Finnish: olla valmiina
• French: se tenir prêt
• Hungarian: készen áll, készenlétben van/áll, vár (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: være parat, være klar, følge med

• Portuguese: esperar (pt)
• Russian: быть в ожида́нии (bytʹ v ožidánii)
• Spanish: esperar (es)

to remain loyal or faithful to (some decision etc.)

• Finnish: pysyä uskollisena, tukea (fi)
• French: rester fidèle à, maintenir (fr), s’en tenir à
• Hungarian: kitart (hu), kiáll (hu), fenntart (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stå ved, stå fast ved

• Russian: стоя́ть за (stojátʹ za)
• Swedish: stå fast vid

to support someone

• Finnish: seisoa rinnalla, tukea (fi)
• Hungarian: melléáll (hu), mellett(e) áll, megvéd (hu), kiáll (hu)
• Russian: подде́рживать (ru) (poddérživatʹ)

to do nothing; to be inactive in a situation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 袖手 (zh) (xiùshǒu), 袖手旁觀 / 袖手旁观 (zh) (xiùshǒupángguān)

• Finnish: seistä (fi), katsoa vierestä
• Hungarian: csak áll, tétlenül szemlél, nem tesz semmit
• Russian: безде́йствовать (ru) (bezdéjstvovatʹ)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} stehen Sie bereit, ^{(please verify)} bereitstehen (de)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} esser presente, ^{(please verify)} tener se preste, ^{(please verify)} in reserva
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} fare una pausa
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} astepta
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} hacer una pausa

See also

• bestand

References

• “stand by”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.