Word.ws English Dictionary

stand on end

stand on end verb: to stand erect, bristle, especially from fear.

Verb

stand on end (third-person singular simple present stands on end, present participle standing on end, simple past and past participle stood on end)

  1. To stand erect, bristle, especially from fear.
    • The horrifying tales he told made my hair stand on end.
  2. To place on its end. (of an object)
    • At one time a "standard test" for carriage riding was to stand a pencil on end on the compartment floor, or to measure how long it was possible to stand on one leg without touching the corridor walls; [...].1961 February, R. K. Evans, “The role of research on British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 93

Forms of stand on end

third-person singular presentstands on end
present participlestanding on end
past participlestood on end
paststood on end

Questions about stand on end

What does stand on end mean?
Stand on end means to stand erect, bristle, especially from fear.
What part of speech is stand on end?
Stand on end is a verb.
What is the past tense of stand on end?
The past tense of stand on end is stood on end.

Words near stand on end in the dictionary

  1. stand of arms
  2. stand off
  3. stand on
  4. stand on business
  5. stand on ceremony
  6. stand on end
  7. stand on its own
  8. stand on one's dignity
  9. stand on one's head
  10. stand on one's own bottom
  11. stand on one's own two feet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stand on end (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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