Word.ws English Dictionary

on the qui vive

on the qui vive adverb: in a state of heightened vigilance, especially prior to battle.

Adverb

on the qui vive

  1. In a state of heightened vigilance, especially prior to battle.
    • The political influence wielded by many of the court ladies, and especially by the first lady-in-waiting (mother of the present Emperor), bears a certain resemblance to that which the eunuchs wielded under the later Manchus at the court of Peking. […] And behind the 30 ladies-in-waiting there are...1920, J[ohn] O[tway] P[ercy] Bland, “[Exhibit G.] Three Palaces.”, in Administration of Immigration Laws: Hearings before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: House of Representatives...
    • The question of who pressed the bell that sounded in Erskine's room, in the night, was a great source of worry to Watt, for a time, and kept him awake at night, on the qui vive.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

Origin of on the qui vive

Partial calque of French sur le qui-vive (“in a state of heightened vigilance”).

Questions about on the qui vive

What does on the qui vive mean?
On the qui vive means in a state of heightened vigilance, especially prior to battle.
What part of speech is on the qui vive?
On the qui vive is an adverb.

Words near on the qui vive in the dictionary

  1. on the prowl
  2. on the pull
  3. on the q.t.
  4. on the qt
  5. on the quarter
  6. on the qui vive
  7. on the quiet
  8. on the rack
  9. on the radar
  10. on the rag
  11. on the rail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the qui vive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the qui vive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_qui_vive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.