How to Use Standby vs. stand by Correctly - Grammarist

The plural of standby is standbys, not standbies. And because standby doesn't work as a verb, standbied and standbying have no use. Stood by and standing by ... Skiptocontent Standbyvs.standby |Grammarist |Usage |Grammarist |Usage Theone-wordstandbyworksasanoun,anadjective,oranadverb.It’scorrectinthephrase onstandby,meaningreadyandwaiting.Bycontention,theone-wordformdoesn’tworkasaverb.Whenyouneedaverbmeaningtostandbesideortobeattheready,usethetwo-wordphrasestandby. Thepluralofstandbyisstandbys,notstandbies.Andbecause standbydoesn’tworkasaverb,standbiedandstandbyinghavenouse.Stoodbyandstandingbyaretheinflectionsofthephrasalverbstandby. Examples Standby InApril,heditcheditinfavorofhisoldstandby:thecurveball.[Star-Ledger] AndwilltheygobeyondtheusualGOPstandbys,liketortreformandsellinghealthinsuranceacrossstatelines?[Politico] ResidentsintheLefthandCanyonareawereonstandbytoevacuateafterautomaticmessageswentto340phonelineswarningthemofthefireSundaynight.[DenverPost] Standby Thatconfidencewashard-wonandnoinflation-targetingcentralbankcanstandbyandseeitfritteredaway.[NewZealandHerald] MohamedSabualusedtostandbysilentlyasheheardclassmatesandotheryouthsmockingMuslims.[CalgaryHerald] Standbyforaglimpseofoneofthebrighteststarsoftheweek.[Telegraph] 2thoughtson“Standbyvs.standby” STILLCONFUSED Reply Whatareyoustillconfusedabout? Reply LeaveaCommentCancelreplyCommentName Email Website Savemyname,email,andwebsiteinthisbrowserforthenexttimeIcomment. Δ   GrammaristisaparticipantintheAmazonServicesLLCAssociatesProgram,anaffiliateadvertisingprogramdesignedtoprovideameansforsitestoearnadvertisingfeesbyadvertisingandlinkingtoAmazon.com.Whenyoubuyviathelinksonoursite,wemayearnanaffiliatecommissionatnocosttoyou. 2022©Grammarist Home About Contact Advertise PrivacyPolicy Terms CloseGrammar Partsofspeech Punctuationmarks Usage Archaisms Colloquialisms Trickywords Easilyconfusedwords VarietiesofEnglish Wordsintransition -ic/-icalwords WordsandPhrases Colloquialisms Trickywords Compounds Easilyconfusedwords Eggcornsandmondegreens Homophones Idioms Interestingwords Loanwordsandloanphrases Newwords Superfluouswords Redundancies Wordsintransition Spelling Homophones -er/-rewords -elverbs -ize/-isewords Style Capitalization Resources Glossary ESL/English Games Interviews Articles Index