'To stand by' definitions:

Definition of 'To stand by'

From: GCIDE

Stand \Stand\ (st[a^]nd), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stood (st[oo^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Standing.] [OE. standen; AS. standan; akin to OFries. stonda, st[=a]n, D. staan, OS. standan, st[=a]n, OHG. stantan, st[=a]n, G. stehen, Icel. standa, Dan. staae, Sw. st[*a], Goth. standan, Russ. stoiate, L. stare, Gr. 'ista`nai to cause to stand, sth^nai to stand, Skr. sth[=a]. [root]163. Cf. Assist, Constant, Contrast, Desist, Destine, Ecstasy, Exist, Interstice, Obstacle, Obstinate, Prest, n., Rest remainder, Solstice, Stable, a. & n., Staff, Stage, Stall, n., Stamen, Stanchion, Stanza, State, n., Statute, Stead, Steed, Stool, Stud of horses, Substance, System.]
1. To be at rest in an erect position; to be fixed in an upright or firm position; as: (a) To be supported on the feet, in an erect or nearly erect position; -- opposed to lie, sit, kneel, etc. "I pray you all, stand up!" --Shak. (b) To continue upright in a certain locality, as a tree fixed by the roots, or a building resting on its foundation. [1913 Webster]
It stands as it were to the ground yglued. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
The ruined wall Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone. --Byron. [1913 Webster]
2. To occupy or hold a place; to have a situation; to be situated or located; as, Paris stands on the Seine. [1913 Webster]
Wite ye not where there stands a little town? --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
3. To cease from progress; not to proceed; to stop; to pause; to halt; to remain stationary. [1913 Webster]
I charge thee, stand, And tell thy name. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
The star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. --Matt. ii. 9. [1913 Webster]
4. To remain without ruin or injury; to hold good against tendencies to impair or injure; to be permanent; to endure; to last; hence, to find endurance, strength, or resources. [1913 Webster]
My mind on its own center stands unmoved. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
5. To maintain one's ground; to be acquitted; not to fail or yield; to be safe. [1913 Webster]
Readers by whose judgment I would stand or fall. --Spectator. [1913 Webster]
6. To maintain an invincible or permanent attitude; to be fixed, steady, or firm; to take a position in resistance or opposition. "The standing pattern of their imitation." --South. [1913 Webster]
The king granted the Jews . . . to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life. --Esther viii. 11. [1913 Webster]
7. To adhere to fixed principles; to maintain moral rectitude; to keep from falling into error or vice. [1913 Webster]
We must labor so as to stand with godliness, according to his appointment. --Latimer. [1913 Webster]
8. To have or maintain a position, order, or rank; to be in a particular relation; as, Christian charity, or love, stands first in the rank of gifts. [1913 Webster]
9. To be in some particular state; to have essence or being; to be; to consist. "Sacrifices . . . which stood only in meats and drinks." --Heb. ix. 10. [1913 Webster]
Accomplish what your signs foreshow; I stand resigned, and am prepared to go. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
Thou seest how it stands with me, and that I may not tarry. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
10. To be consistent; to agree; to accord. [1913 Webster]
Doubt me not; by heaven, I will do nothing But what may stand with honor. --Massinger. [1913 Webster]
11. (Naut.) To hold a course at sea; as, to stand from the shore; to stand for the harbor. [1913 Webster]
From the same parts of heaven his navy stands. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
12. To offer one's self, or to be offered, as a candidate. [1913 Webster]
He stood to be elected one of the proctors of the university. --Walton. [1913 Webster]
13. To stagnate; not to flow; to be motionless. [1913 Webster]
Or the black water of Pomptina stands. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
14. To measure when erect on the feet. [1913 Webster]
Six feet two, as I think, he stands. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
15. (Law) (a) To be or remain as it is; to continue in force; to have efficacy or validity; to abide. --Bouvier. (b) To appear in court. --Burrill. [1913 Webster]
16. (Card Playing) To be, or signify that one is, willing to play with one's hand as dealt. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Stand by (Naut.), a preparatory order, equivalent to {Be ready}.
To stand against, to oppose; to resist.
To stand by. (a) To be near; to be a spectator; to be present. (b) To be aside; to be set aside with disregard. "In the interim [we] let the commands stand by neglected." --Dr. H. More. (c) To maintain; to defend; to support; not to desert; as, to stand by one's principles or party. (d) To rest on for support; to be supported by. --Whitgift. (e) To remain as a spectator, and take no part in an action; as, we can't just stand idly by while people are being killed.
To stand corrected, to be set right, as after an error in a statement of fact; to admit having been in error. --Wycherley.
To stand fast, to be fixed; to be unshaken or immovable.
To stand firmly on, to be satisfied or convinced of. "Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on his wife's frailty." --Shak.
To stand for. (a) To side with; to espouse the cause of; to support; to maintain, or to profess or attempt to maintain; to defend. "I stand wholly for you." --Shak. (b) To be in the place of; to be the substitute or representative of; to represent; as, a cipher at the left hand of a figure stands for nothing. "I will not trouble myself, whether these names stand for the same thing, or really include one another." --Locke. (c) To tolerate; as, I won't stand for any delay.
To stand in, to cost. "The same standeth them in much less cost." --Robynson (More's Utopia).
The Punic wars could not have stood the human race in less than three millions of the species. --Burke.
To stand in hand, to conduce to one's interest; to be serviceable or advantageous.
To stand off. (a) To keep at a distance. (b) Not to comply. (c) To keep at a distance in friendship, social intercourse, or acquaintance. (d) To appear prominent; to have relief. "Picture is best when it standeth off, as if it were carved." --Sir H. Wotton.
To stand off and on (Naut.), to remain near a coast by sailing toward land and then from it.
To stand on (Naut.), to continue on the same tack or course.
To stand out. (a) To project; to be prominent. "Their eyes stand out with fatness." --Psalm lxxiii. 7. (b) To persist in opposition or resistance; not to yield or comply; not to give way or recede.
His spirit is come in, That so stood out against the holy church. --Shak.
To stand to. (a) To ply; to urge; to persevere in using. "Stand to your tackles, mates, and stretch your oars." --Dryden. (b) To remain fixed in a purpose or opinion. "I will stand to it, that this is his sense." --Bp. Stillingfleet. (c) To abide by; to adhere to; as to a contract, assertion, promise, etc.; as, to stand to an award; to stand to one's word. (d) Not to yield; not to fly; to maintain, as one's ground. "Their lives and fortunes were put in safety, whether they stood to it or ran away." --Bacon. (e) To be consistent with; to agree with; as, it stands to reason that he could not have done so; same as stand with, below . (f) To support; to uphold. "Stand to me in this cause." --Shak.
To stand together, to be consistent; to agree.
To stand to reason to be reasonable; to be expected.
To stand to sea (Naut.), to direct the course from land.
To stand under, to undergo; to withstand. --Shak.
To stand up. (a) To rise from sitting; to be on the feet. (b) To arise in order to speak or act. "Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed." --Acts xxv. 18. (c) To rise and stand on end, as the hair. (d) To put one's self in opposition; to contend. "Once we stood up about the corn." --Shak.
To stand up for, to defend; to justify; to support, or attempt to support; as, to stand up for the administration.
To stand upon. (a) To concern; to interest. (b) To value; to esteem. "We highly esteem and stand much upon our birth." --Ray. (c) To insist on; to attach much importance to; as, to stand upon security; to stand upon ceremony. (d) To attack; to assault. [A Hebraism] "So I stood upon him, and slew him." --2 Sam. i. 10.
To stand with, to be consistent with. "It stands with reason that they should be rewarded liberally." --Sir J. Davies. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'To stand by'

From: GCIDE

By \By\ (b[imac]), prep. [OE. bi, AS. b[imac], big, near to, by, of, from, after, according to; akin to OS. & OFries. bi, be, D. bij, OHG. b[imac], G. bei, Goth. bi, and perh. Gr. 'amfi`. E. prefix be- is orig. the same word. [root]203. See pref. Be-.]
1. In the neighborhood of; near or next to; not far from; close to; along with; as, come and sit by me. [1913 Webster]
By foundation or by shady rivulet He sought them both. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
2. On; along; in traversing. Compare 5. [1913 Webster]
Long labors both by sea and land he bore. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
By land, by water, they renew the charge. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
3. Near to, while passing; hence, from one to the other side of; past; as, to go by a church. [1913 Webster]
4. Used in specifying adjacent dimensions; as, a cabin twenty feet by forty. [1913 Webster]
5. Against. [Obs.] --Tyndale [1. Cor. iv. 4]. [1913 Webster]
6. With, as means, way, process, etc.; through means of; with aid of; through; through the act or agency of; as, a city is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take by force. [1913 Webster]
Note: To the meaning of by, as denoting means or agency, belong, more or less closely, most of the following uses of the word: (a) It points out the author and producer; as, "Waverley", a novel by Sir W.Scott; a statue by Canova; a sonata by Beethoven. (b) In an oath or adjuration, it indicates the being or thing appealed to as sanction; as, I affirm to you by all that is sacred; he swears by his faith as a Christian; no, by Heaven. (c) According to; by direction, authority, or example of; after; -- in such phrases as, it appears by his account; ten o'clock by my watch; to live by rule; a model to build by. (d) At the rate of; according to the ratio or proportion of; in the measure or quantity of; as, to sell cloth by the yard, milk by the quart, eggs by the dozen, meat by the pound; to board by the year. (e) In comparison, it denotes the measure of excess or deficiency; when anything is increased or diminished, it indicates the measure of increase or diminution; as, larger by a half; older by five years; to lessen by a third. (f) It expresses continuance or duration; during the course of; within the period of; as, by day, by night. (g) As soon as; not later than; near or at; -- used in expressions of time; as, by this time the sun had risen; he will be here by two o'clock. [1913 Webster]
Note: In boxing the compass, by indicates a pint nearer to, or towards, the next cardinal point; as, north by east, i.e., a point towards the east from the north; northeast by east, i.e., on point nearer the east than northeast is. [1913 Webster]
Note: With is used instead of by before the instrument with which anything is done; as, to beat one with a stick; the board was fastened by the carpenter with nails. But there are many words which may be regarded as means or processes, or, figuratively, as instruments; and whether with or by shall be used with them is a matter of arbitrary, and often, of unsettled usage; as, to a reduce a town by famine; to consume stubble with fire; he gained his purpose by flattery; he entertained them with a story; he distressed us with or by a recital of his sufferings. see With. [1913 Webster]
By all means, most assuredly; without fail; certainly.
By and by. (a) Close together (of place). [Obs.] "Two yonge knightes liggyng [lying] by and by." --Chaucer. (b) Immediately; at once. [Obs.] "When . . . persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended." --Matt. xiii. 21. (c) Presently; pretty soon; before long.
Note: In this phrase, by seems to be used in the sense of nearness in time, and to be repeated for the sake of emphasis, and thus to be equivalent to "soon, and soon," that is instantly; hence, -- less emphatically, -- pretty soon, presently.
By one's self, with only one's self near; alone; solitary.
By the bye. See under Bye.
By the head (Naut.), having the bows lower than the stern; -- said of a vessel when her head is lower in the water than her stern. If her stern is lower, she is by the stern.
By the lee, the situation of a vessel, going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.
By the run, to let go by the run, to let go altogether, instead of slacking off.
By the way, by the bye; -- used to introduce an incidental or secondary remark or subject.
Day by day, One by one, Piece by piece, etc., each day, each one, each piece, etc., by itself singly or separately; each severally.
To come by, to get possession of; to obtain.
To do by, to treat, to behave toward.
To set by, to value, to esteem.
To stand by, to aid, to support. [1913 Webster]
Note: The common phrase good-by is equivalent to farewell, and would be better written good-bye, as it is a corruption of God be with you (b'w'ye). [1913 Webster]

'To stand by' definitions:

Definition of 'To stand by'

Definition of 'To stand by'

Words containing 'To stand by'