Word.ws English Dictionary

standbys

standbys is the plural of standby.

standbys is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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

Questions about standbys

What is standbys the plural of?
Standbys is the plural of standby.

Words near standbys in the dictionary

  1. standby loans
  2. standby time
  3. standby times
  4. standbyed
  5. standbying
  6. standbys
  7. standdown
  8. standdowns
  9. standed
  10. Standedge
  11. standee

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standbys (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: “standbys.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/standbys. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.