"stand at attention" meaning in English

See stand at attention in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: stands at attention [present, singular, third-person], standing at attention [participle, present], stood at attention [participle, past], stood at attention [past], stand to attention [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|stand<,,stood> at attention}} 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. (military) To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together. Categories (topical): Military
    Sense id: en-stand_at_attention-en-verb-m-sQmM4L Topics: government, military, politics, war
  2. (humorous) To have an erection. Tags: humorous Translations (Translations): seisoa asennossa (Finnish), garde à vous (French), stawać na baczność [imperfective] (Polish), stać na baczność [perfective] (Polish), estar firme (Spanish), estar en posición de firme (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-stand_at_attention-en-verb-IcQkr7Aj Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 62 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 28 72 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 26 74 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 16 84 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 17 83 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 22 78 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 19 81 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 15 85 Disambiguation of 'Translations': 40 60

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "stands at attention",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "standing at attention",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stood at attention",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stood at attention",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stand to attention",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "stand<,,stood> at attention"
      },
      "expansion": "stand at attention (third-person singular simple present stands at attention, present participle standing at attention, simple past and past participle stood at attention)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Military",
          "orig": "en:Military",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together."
      ],
      "id": "en-stand_at_attention-en-verb-m-sQmM4L",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military) To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "26 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 84",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 83",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 78",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 85",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have an erection."
      ],
      "id": "en-stand_at_attention-en-verb-IcQkr7Aj",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "erection",
          "erection"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous) To have an erection."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "seisoa asennossa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "garde à vous"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "stawać na baczność"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "stać na baczność"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "estar firme"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "estar en posición de firme"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "stand at attention"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "Translation table header lacks gloss"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "stands at attention",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "standing at attention",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stood at attention",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stood at attention",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stand to attention",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "stand<,,stood> at attention"
      },
      "expansion": "stand at attention (third-person singular simple present stands at attention, present participle standing at attention, simple past and past participle stood at attention)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Military"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military) To stand straight with eyes forward and feet together."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have an erection."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "erection",
          "erection"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous) To have an erection."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "seisoa asennossa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "garde à vous"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "stawać na baczność"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "stać na baczność"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "estar firme"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "estar en posición de firme"
    }
  ],
  "word": "stand at attention"
}

Download raw JSONL data for stand at attention meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.