Word.ws English Dictionary

stand-by

stand-by is the alternative form of standby.

Meaning of standby

Noun

standby (countable and uncountable, plural standbys)

  1. A state of readiness without immediate involvement; remaining in preparation for (a sudden or unforeseen event or situation).
    • The troops were on standby in case of an attack.
  2. A replacement kept on standby.
    • During three weeks of the run, I was performing with walking pneumonia, but I had no choice other than to perform because we didn't have the budget for stand-bys.1977 December 17, Harold Pickett, quoting Jim Ferguson, “New York, New York”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 6
  3. Sleep mode.
  4. Waiting at the airport in the hope of getting a seat on a flight that is already booked out.
  5. Something that is standard, well-tested, or frequently used.
    • That recipe is an old standby, and she keeps the ingredients around in case of unexpected guests.

See all 6 meanings of standby

Forms of stand-by

pluralstand-bys

Origin of stand-by

Deverbal from stand by.

Questions about stand-by

What is stand-by the alternative form of?
Stand-by is the alternative form of standby.

Words near stand-by in the dictionary

  1. stand with
  2. stand'st
  3. stand-alone
  4. stand-aloneness
  5. stand-alones
  6. stand-by
  7. stand-by-bed
  8. stand-bys
  9. stand-down
  10. stand-downs
  11. stand-in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stand-by (page history and authors); standby (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: “stand-by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stand-by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.