standard issue

English

Alternative forms

• standard-issue (attributive)

Adjective

standard issue (not comparable)

2. (of a piece of equipment) Regularly and conventionally distributed by an organization (for instance, to its personnel); for regular usage; not specialized.

   Antonyms: special, specialized, special issue; custom, customized, bespoke

   Hyponym: government issue

   Coordinate term: mil-spec

   Near-synonyms: standard; stock; regular; baseline

   Most employees of this company get a standard issue laptop, but those in the art department get a more powerful model.

   • 2020 May 27, Kieran Yates, “Fifteen years of TV dinners: why Come Dine With Me has endured”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     While we have long endured the sneering tone in discussions about council homes with “ugly” fire doors, and standard-issue gas heaters hastily turned into MDF fireplaces on home-makeover shows, CDWM explores a subtler classism.

4. (by extension, derogatory) Not special or remarkable; conventional.

   Antonyms: premium, deluxe

   Near-synonyms: basic, garden-variety, humdrum, ordinary, pedestrian, plain, plain Jane, plain vanilla, unremarkable; see also Thesaurus:normal

   • 2016 January 7, Peter Bradshaw, “A War review – standard issue Afghan war drama”, in the Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Standard-issue liberal guilt and hand-wringingly uninteresting dilemmas are the order of the day, with no real surprises or challenges.

Noun

standard issue (uncountable)

2. The normal equipment or supplies issued by an organization.

   A Smith & Wesson double-action .38 revolver was the standard issue in those days.

   For food and clothing, we were happy to get the standard issue, as it was way better than anything we had been used to, truth be told.

Related terms

• standardization
• standardness

See also

• service pistol