Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Stand \Stand\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Stood}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Standing}.] [OE. standen; AS. standan; akin to OFries.
stonda, st[=a]n, D. staan, OS. standan, st[=a]n, G. stehen,
Icel. standa, Dan. staae, Sw. st[*a], Goth. standan, Russ.
stoiate, L. stare, Gr. ? to cause to stand, ? to stand, Skr.
sth[=a]. [root]163. Cf. {Assist}, {Constant}, {Contrast},
{Desist}, {Destine}, {Ecstasy}, {Exist}, {Interstice},
{Obstacle}, {Obstinate}, {Prest}, n., {Rest} remainder,
{Soltice}, {Stable}, a. & n., {State}, n., {Statute},
{Stead}, {Steed}, {Stool}, {Stud} of horses, {Substance},
{System}.]
1. To be at rest in an erect position; to be fixed in an
upright or firm position; as:
(a) To be supported on the feet, in an erect or nearly
erect position; -- opposed to {lie}, {sit}, {kneel},
etc. ``I pray you all, stand up!'' --Shak.
(b) To continue upright in a certain locality, as a tree
fixed by the roots, or a building resting on its
foundation.
It stands as it were to the ground yglued.
--Chaucer.
The ruined wall Stands when its wind worn
battlements are gone. --Byron.
2. To occupy or hold a place; to have a situation; to be
situated or located; as, Paris stands on the Seine.
Wite ye not where there stands a little town?
--Chaucer.
3. To cease from progress; not to proceed; to stop; to pause;
to halt; to remain stationary.
I charge thee, stand, And tell thy name. --Dryden.
The star, which they saw in the east, went before
them, till it came and stood over where the young
child was. --Matt. ii. 9.
4. To remain without ruin or injury; to hold good against
tendencies to impair or injure; to be permanent; to
endure; to last; hence, to find endurance, strength, or
resources.
My mind on its own center stands unmoved. --Dryden.
5. To maintain one's ground; to be acquitted; not to fail or
yield; to be safe.
Readers by whose judgment I would stand or fall.
--Spectator.
6. To maintain an invincible or permanent attitude; to be
fixed, steady, or firm; to take a position in resistance
or opposition. ``The standing pattern of their
imitation.'' --South.
The king granted the Jews . . . to gather themselves
together, and to stand for their life. --Esther
viii. 11.
7. To adhere to fixed principles; to maintain moral
rectitude; to keep from falling into error or vice.
We must labor so as to stand with godliness,
according to his appointment. --Latimer.
8. To have or maintain a position, order, or rank; to be in a
particular relation; as, Christian charity, or love,
stands first in the rank of gifts.
9. To be in some particular state; to have essence or being;
to be; to consist. ``Sacrifices . . . which stood only in
meats and drinks.'' --Heb. ix. 10.
Accomplish what your signs foreshow; I stand
resigned, and am prepared to go. --Dryden.
Thou seest how it stands with me, and that I may not
tarry. --Sir W.
Scott.
10. To be consistent; to agree; to accord.
Doubt me not; by heaven, I will do nothing But what
may stand with honor. --Massinger.
11. (Naut.) To hold a course at sea; as, to stand from the
shore; to stand for the harbor.
From the same parts of heaven his navy stands.
--Dryden.
12. To offer one's self, or to be offered, as a candidate.
He stood to be elected one of the proctors of the
university. --Walton.
13. To stagnate; not to flow; to be motionless.
Or the black water of Pomptina stands. --Dryden.
14. To measure when erect on the feet.
Six feet two, as I think, he stands. --Tennyson.
15. (Law)
(a) To be or remain as it is; to continue in force; to
have efficacy or validity; to abide. --Bouvier.
(b) To appear in court. --Burrill.
{Stand by} (Naut.), a preparatory order, equivalent to {Be
ready}.
{To stand against}, to opposite; to resist.
{To stand by}.
(a) To be near; to be a spectator; to be present.
(b) To be aside; to be aside with disregard. ``In the
interim [we] let the commands stand by neglected.''
--Dr. H. More.
(c) To maintain; to defend; to support; not to desert;
as, to stand by one's principles or party.
(d) To rest on for support; to be supported by.
--Whitgift.
{To stand corrected}, to be set right, as after an error in a
statement of fact. --Wycherley.
{To stand fast}, to be fixed; to be unshaken or immovable.
{To stand firmly on}, to be satisfied or convinced of.
``Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on
his wife's frailty.'' --Shak.
{To stand for}.
(a) To side with; to espouse the cause of; to support; to
maintain, or to profess or attempt to maintain; to
defend. ``I stand wholly for you.'' --Shak.
(b) To be in the place of; to be the substitute or to
represent; as, a cipher at the left hand of a figure
stands for nothing. ``I will not trouble myself,
whether these names stand for the same thing, or
really include one another.'' --Locke.
{To stand in}, to cost. ``The same standeth them in much less
cost.'' --Robynson (More's Utopia).
The Punic wars could not have stood the human race
in less than three millions of the species. --Burke.
{To stand in hand}, to conduce to one's interest; to be
serviceable or advantageous.
{To stand off}.
(a) To keep at a distance.
(b) Not to comply.
(c) To keep at a distance in friendship, social
intercourse, or acquaintance.
(d) To appear prominent; to have relief. ``Picture is
best when it standeth off, as if it were carved.''
--Sir H. Wotton.
{To stand off and on} (Naut.), to remain near a coast by
sailing toward land and then from it.
{To stand on} (Naut.), to continue on the same tack or
course.
{To stand out}.
(a) To project; to be prominent. ``Their eyes stand out
with fatness.'' --Psalm lxxiii. 7.
(b) To persist in opposition or resistance; not to yield
or comply; not to give way or recede.
His spirit is come in, That so stood out
against the holy church. --Shak.
{To stand to}.
(a) To ply; to urge; to persevere in using. ``Stand to
your tackles, mates, and stretch your oars.''
--Dryden.
(b) To remain fixed in a purpose or opinion. ``I will
stand to it, that this is his sense.'' --Bp.
Stillingfleet.
(c) To abide by; to adhere to; as to a contrast,
assertion, promise, etc.; as, to stand to an award;
to stand to one's word.
(d) Not to yield; not to fly; to maintain, as one's
ground. ``Their lives and fortunes were put in
safety, whether they stood to it or ran away.''
--Bacon.
(e) To be consistent with; to agree with; as, it stands
to reason that he could not have done so.
(f) To support; to uphold. ``Stand to me in this cause.''
--Shak.
{To stand together}, to be consistent; to agree.
{To stand to sea} (Naut.), to direct the course from land.
{To stand under}, to undergo; to withstand. --Shak.
{To stand up}.
(a) To rise from sitting; to be on the feet.
(b) To arise in order to speak or act. ``Against whom,
when the accusers stood up, they brought none
accusation of such things as I supposed.'' --Acts
xxv. 18.
(c) To rise and stand on end, as the hair.
(d) To put one's self in opposition; to contend. ``Once
we stood up about the corn.'' --Shak.
{To stand up for}, to defend; to justify; to support, or
attempt to support; as, to stand up for the
administration.
{To stand upon}.
(a) To concern; to interest.
(b) To value; to esteem. ``We highly esteem and stand
much upon our birth.'' --Ray.
(c) To insist on; to attach much importance to; as, to
stand upon security; to stand upon ceremony.
(d) To attack; to assault. [A Hebraism] ``So I stood upon
him, and slew him.'' --2 Sam. i. 10.
{To stand with}, to be consistent with. ``It stands with
reason that they should be rewarded liberally.'' --Sir J.
Davies.
By \By\ (b[imac]), prep. [OE. bi, AS. b[=i], big, near to, by,
of, from, after, according to; akin to OS. & OFries. bi, be,
D. bij, OHG. b[=i], G. bei, Goth. bi, and perh. Gr. 'amfi`.
E. prefix be- is orig. the same word. [root]203. See pref.
{Be-}.]
1. In the neighborhood of; near or next to; not far from;
close to; along with; as, come and sit by me. [1913
Webster]
By foundation or by shady rivulet He sought them
both. --Milton.
2. On; along; in traversing. Compare 5.
Long labors both by sea and land he bore. --Dryden.
By land, by water, they renew the charge. --Pope.
3. Near to, while passing; hence, from one to the other side
of; past; as, to go by a church.
4. Used in specifying adjacent dimensions; as, a cabin twenty
feet by forty.
5. Against. [Obs.] --Tyndale [1. Cor. iv. 4].
6. With, as means, way, process, etc.; through means of; with
aid of; through; through the act or agency of; as, a city
is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take
by force.
Note: To the meaning of by, as denoting means or agency,
belong, more or less closely, most of the following
uses of the word:
(a) It points out the author and producer; as,
``Waverley'', a novel by Sir W.Scott; a statue by
Canova; a sonata by Beethoven.
(b) In an oath or adjuration, it indicates the being or
thing appealed to as sanction; as, I affirm to you by
all that is sacred; he swears by his faith as a
Christian; no, by Heaven.
(c) According to; by direction, authority, or example of;
after; -- in such phrases as, it appears by his
account; ten o'clock by my watch; to live by rule; a
model to build by.
(d) At the rate of; according to the ratio or proportion
of; in the measure or quantity of; as, to sell cloth
by the yard, milk by the quart, eggs by the dozen,
meat by the pound; to board by the year.
(e) In comparison, it denotes the measure of excess or
deficiency; when anything is increased or diminished,
it indicates the measure of increase or diminution;
as, larger by a half; older by five years; to lessen
by a third.
(f) It expresses continuance or duration; during the
course of; within the period of; as, by day, by night.
(g) As soon as; not later than; near or at; -- used in
expressions of time; as, by this time the sun had
risen; he will be here by two o'clock.
Note: In boxing the compass, by indicates a pint nearer to,
or towards, the next cardinal point; as, north by east,
i.e., a point towards the east from the north;
northeast by east, i.e., on point nearer the east than
northeast is.
Note: With is used instead of by before the instrument with
which anything is done; as, to beat one with a stick;
the board was fastened by the carpenter with nails. But
there are many words which may be regarded as means or
processes, or, figuratively, as instruments; and
whether with or by shall be used with them is a matter
of arbitrary, and often, of unsettled usage; as, to a
reduce a town by famine; to consume stubble with fire;
he gained his purpose by flattery; he entertained them
with a story; he distressed us with or by a recital of
his sufferings. see {With}.
{By all means}, most assuredly; without fail; certainly.
{By and by}.
(a) Close together (of place). [Obs.] ``Two yonge knightes
liggyng [lying] by and by.'' --Chaucer.
(b) Immediately; at once. [Obs.] ``When . . . persecution
ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended.'' --Matt. xiii. 21.
(c) Presently; pretty soon; before long.
Note: In this phrase, by seems to be used in the sense of
nearness in time, and to be repeated for the sake of
emphasis, and thus to be equivalent to ``soon, and
soon,'' that is instantly; hence, -- less emphatically,
-- pretty soon, presently.
{By one's self}, with only one's self near; alone; solitary.
{By the bye}. See under {Bye}.
{By the head} (Naut.), having the bows lower than the stern;
-- said of a vessel when her head is lower in the water
than her stern. If her stern is lower, she is by the
stern.
{By the lee}, the situation of a vessel, going free, when she
has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her
stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.
{By the run}, to let go by the run, to let go altogether,
instead of slacking off.
{By the way}, by the bye; -- used to introduce an incidental
or secondary remark or subject.
{Day by day}, {One by one}, {Piece by piece}, etc., each day,
each one, each piece, etc., by itself singly or
separately; each severally.
{To come by}, to get possession of; to obtain.
{To do by}, to treat, to behave toward.
{To set by}, to value, to esteem.
{To stand by}, to aid, to support.
Note: The common phrase good-by is equivalent to farewell,
and would be better written good-bye, as it is a
corruption of God be with you (b'w'ye).