Word.ws English Dictionary

stands in the gate

stands in the gate is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stand in the gate.

Meaning of stand in the gate

Verb

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

  1. (dated, idiomatic) To occupy a place or position of advantage, power, or defence.
    • "What brings you to my poor door?" she cried, speaking high through her nose. "I cannot bar it. The males of my house are dead and buried; I have neither son nor husband to stand in the gate for me; any beggar can pluck me by the baird[2]—and a baird there is, and that's the worst of it yet!" she...1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC

Questions about stands in the gate

What is stands in the gate the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Stands in the gate is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stand in the gate.

Words near stands in the gate in the dictionary

  1. stands in for
  2. stands in one's own light
  3. stands in one's value
  4. stands in someone's shoes
  5. stands in the gap
  6. stands in the gate
  7. stands in the way
  8. stands of arms
  9. stands off
  10. stands on
  11. stands on business

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stands in the gate (page history and authors); stand in the gate (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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