Word.ws English Dictionary

stand to

stand to is the alternative form of stand-to.

Verb

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

  1. To tolerate (something); to be able to withstand (something) stressful that will be ultimately beneficial.
    • You could stand to lose a couple pounds.
  2. To be on the verge of (something) happening, if certain conditions are met.
    • He stands to inherit ten million dollars if that happens!
  3. (archaic) To live up to; to insist upon or maintain.
    • I do not, for that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disregard the constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and firmly. Abraham Lincoln

Meaning of stand-to

Noun

stand-to (plural stands-to or stand-tos)

  1. A state of readiness assumed by ground troops at dawn and dusk in wartime.
    • "Stand-to" at dusk for about an hour, work all night, "stand-to" for an hour before dawn. That's the general programme.1915, Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That, (1929), Penguin Modern Classics 1960, p. 86

See all 2 meanings of stand-to

Forms of stand to

Noun
pluralstands to
pluralstand tos
Verb
third-person singular presentstands to
present participlestanding to
past participlestood to
paststood to

Origin of stand to

Shortened form of "stand to arms"

Questions about stand to

What does stand to mean?
Stand to means to tolerate (something); to be able to withstand (something) stressful that will be ultimately beneficial.
What is stand to the alternative form of?
Stand to is the alternative form of stand-to.
What part of speech is stand to?
Stand to is a verb.
What is the past tense of stand to?
The past tense of stand to is stood to.

Words near stand to in the dictionary

  1. stand stills
  2. stand tall
  3. stand the gaff
  4. stand the test of time
  5. stand there like a lemon
  6. stand to
  7. stand to attention
  8. stand to pee
  9. stand to pees
  10. stand to reason
  11. stand together

Source and license

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