Word.ws English Dictionary

stand in the gap

stand in the gap verb: to expose oneself for the protection of something; to make defence against any assailing danger; to take the place of a fallen defender or supporter.

Verb

stand in the gap (third-person singular simple present stands in the gap, present participle standing in the gap, simple past and past participle stood in the gap)

  1. (idiomatic) To expose oneself for the protection of something; to make defence against any assailing danger; to take the place of a fallen defender or supporter.

Forms of stand in the gap

third-person singular presentstands in the gap
present participlestanding in the gap
past participlestood in the gap
paststood in the gap

Questions about stand in the gap

What does stand in the gap mean?
Stand in the gap means to expose oneself for the protection of something; to make defence against any assailing danger; to take the place of a fallen defender or supporter.
What part of speech is stand in the gap?
Stand in the gap is a verb.
What is the past tense of stand in the gap?
The past tense of stand in the gap is stood in the gap.

Words near stand in the gap in the dictionary

  1. stand in for
  2. stand in good stead
  3. stand in one's own light
  4. stand in one's value
  5. stand in someone's shoes
  6. stand in the gap
  7. stand in the gate
  8. stand in the way
  9. stand ins
  10. stand of arms
  11. stand off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stand in the gap (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-stand in the gap.ogg.

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