stand by

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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.

   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.

   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:

     [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.

   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.

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

• (wait in expectation of some event): hang on, stay; See also Thesaurus:wait
• (remain faithful): go to the wall for someone (UK, idiomatic), keep faith
• (support): uphold
• (do nothing): lallygag, waste time; See also Thesaurus:loiter
• (be ready to provide assistance):

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

• bestand

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