Word.ws English Dictionary

stand to attention

stand to attention is the alternative form of stand at attention.

Meaning of stand at attention

Verb

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

  1. To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together.
    • It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during “God save the King” than of stealing from a poor box.1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn
  2. (humorous) To have an erection.

Forms of stand to attention

third-person singular presentstands to attention
present participlestanding to attention
past participlestood to attention
paststood to attention

Questions about stand to attention

What is stand to attention the alternative form of?
Stand to attention is the alternative form of stand at attention.

Words near stand to attention in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stand to attention (page history and authors); stand at attention (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “stand to attention.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stand_to_attention. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.