stand by

1. 1.

   not act or do anything

   “He just stood by when the police beat up the demonstrators”

   Broaderrefrain
2. 2.

   be available or ready for a certain function or service

   Synonymsstick aroundstick about

   Broaderwait
3. 3.

   be loyal to

   “She stood by her husband in times of trouble”

   “The friends stuck together through the war”

   Synonymsstick bystickadhere

   Broaderbe

Questions about stand by

What does stand by mean?

stand by means "not act or do anything". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for stand by?

Close synonyms include stick around, stick about, stick by, stick, adhere. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is stand by a common word?

stand by is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.