Word.ws English Dictionary

standing at attention

standing at attention is the present participle and gerund 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.

Questions about standing at attention

What is standing at attention the present participle and gerund of?
Standing at attention is the present participle and gerund of stand at attention.

Words near standing at attention in the dictionary

  1. standing apart
  2. standing armies
  3. standing army
  4. standing around
  5. standing aside
  6. standing at attention
  7. standing back
  8. standing behind
  9. standing between
  10. standing by
  11. standing cloud

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standing at 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.

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