standoff
UK/ˈstændɒf//ˈstændɔf/
standoff noun: a device which maintains a fixed distance between two objects, especially between a surface and a sign or electrical wiring. Also the nonstandard spelling of stand off.
Noun
standoff (plural standoffs)
- A device which maintains a fixed distance between two objects, especially between a surface and a sign or electrical wiring.
- A deadlocked confrontation between antagonists.
- I don't want to get involved in the standoff between those two.
- A tense standoff between demonstrators and police continued overnight.
Adjective
standoff (not comparable)
- For use at a distance sufficient from the target to allow defensive fire to be evaded.
- a standoff bomb, missile, or weapon
Also used as
standoff is also the nonstandard spelling of stand off.
standoff meaning in Nepali
standoff in Nepali
- स्ट्यान्डअफ
Examples of standoff in a sentence
- In recent months, both Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Captain America: Civil War have offered up big, flashy superhero standoffs as feuds of ideology and stubborn will.2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The Onion AV Club...
- The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office detained an adult stepson who broke into his parents’ home and was involved in a standoff with deputies in Orangevale.2026 January 1, Emma Kidger, “Orangevale home invasion: Stepson in standoff with sheriff’s office”, in KTXL, archived from the original on...
Forms of standoff
| plural | standoffs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | stand off |
| alternative form | stand-off |
Origin of standoff
Deverbal from stand off.
Words formed from standoff
- Mexican standoff
- porcelain standoff insulator
- standoffish
- standoff markup
- standoff missile
- standoff weapon
Questions about standoff
- What does standoff mean?
- Standoff means a device which maintains a fixed distance between two objects, especially between a surface and a sign or electrical wiring.
- What is standoff in Nepali?
- Standoff in Nepali is स्ट्यान्डअफ. See Standoff meaning in Nepali.
- How do you use standoff in a sentence?
- In recent months, both Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Captain America: Civil War have offered up big, flashy superhero standoffs as feuds of ideology and stubborn will.
- What part of speech is standoff?
- Standoff can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce standoff?
- Standoff is pronounced /ˈstændɒf/ (UK).
- What is the plural of standoff?
- The plural of standoff is standoffs.
Words near standoff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: standoff (page history and authors); standoff (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-standoff.ogg.
Cite this entry: “standoff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/standoff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.