act as bridesmaid or groomsman; to stand holes (see quot. 1847). Also see Pad; Patter; Racket; Sam; Treat; Velvet.
. . . Townley Mysteries (Camden Soc.), 310. They have no fete to stande.
1628. Earle, Microcos [Arber, 32], 10, 'A Church Papist.' He bates her in tyres what she stands him in religion.
c. 1680. Butler, Hudibras's Epitaph. For the good old cause stood buff 'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
1698. Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, i. 1. Would my courage come up to a fourth part of my ill-nature, I'd stand buff to her relations, and thrust her out of doors. Ibid., v. 2. The marriage knot . . . may stand buff a long time.
1701. Collier, M. Anton. (1726), 219. To stand buff against danger and death.
1732. Fielding, Misc., 11. i. I must even stand buff and outface him.
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scandal, ii. 3. Ha! ha! ha! that he should have stood bluff to an old bachelor so long, and sink into a husband at last!
1812. Austen, Mansfield Park, xii. If you want to dance, Fanny, I will stand up with you.
1827. Scott, Diary [Lockhart (1839), ix. 146]. It is best to stand buff to him.
1832. Crockett, Tour Down East, 137. I begun a new campaign at Washington. I had hard work, but I stood up to the rack, fodder or no fodder.
1844. Major Jones's Courtship, 64. It was the hottest night's work ever old Wolf undertook; and it tuck a mighty chance of hollerin' to make him stand up to his rack as well as he did.
1847. Halliwell, Arch. Words, &c., s.v. Stand-holes. "I'll stand holes," I will hold to my bargain; sometimes thus limited, "I'll stand holes till next Wednesday." It seems borrowed from the game kit-cat, or bandy wicket, at which if a player indicate an intention of running indiscreetly in the opinion of another, the latter will fix him to his position by roaring out "stand holes."
1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxiv. He stood up to the Banbury Man for three minutes, and polished him off in four rounds.
1853. Winthrop, Hist. New England, i. 55. Every bushel of wheat meal stood us in fourteen shillings.
1872. Holmes, Poet at Breakfast Table, i. His face marked with strong manly furrows, records of hard thinking, and square stand-up fights with life.
1877. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. If I lend you these I shall want to stand in; but I said I can't stand you at that; I will grease your dukes if you like.
Stander, subs. (Old Cant).—A
sentinel.
1607. Rowlands, Hist. Rogues [quoted by Ribton-Turner, Vagrants, &c., 583]. And so was faine to liue among the wicked sometimes a stander for the padder.
Stander-up, subs. phr. (American
thieves').—A thief whose speciality
is robbing drunken men under
pretence of helping them home.
Stand-far-off (or Stand-further-off),
subs. phr. (old).—See
quots.
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Certaine sonnets, in praise of Mr. Thomas the deceased; fashioned of divers stuffs, as mockado, fustian, stand-further off, and motley.
1665. Fuller. Ch. Hist., vi. 332. False miracles, . . . like the stuffe called Stand-farre-off, must not have the beholder too near, lest the coursnesse thereof doth appeare. Ibid. (1662), Worthies 'Norwich.' In my child-hood there was one [cloth] called Stand-far-off (the embleme of Hypocrisie), which seemed pretty at competent distance, but discovered its coarseness when nearer to the eye.
Stand-further, subs. phr. (provincial).—A
quarrel, tiff, or disagreement:
e.g., 'There's quite a
stand-further between them.'
Standing. See Stand.
To take standing, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To accept or endure with composure [as one would take a 'high jump' without a run in]: hence, without ado.
1901. Free Lance, 27 Ap., 77, 2. Like a philosophical American, he took it standing, merely remarking to an English friend that it was "just as cheap as Monte Carlo, and a durned sight pleasanter."
