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Glite Dictionary
✊ To support 🔤 To mean 🙅 To tolerate 🗳️ To run (election)
to stand for

to stand for

89 3.5
To accept something bad or wrong without complaining
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : tolerar
  • I won't stand for this treatment any longer.

We will no longer stand for him.

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Examples

  • "The faculty would never stand for it," was the only response he got.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Your family will never stand for it.

    W.E. (2011)

  • And I, for one, am not gonna stand for it.

    The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)

  • And I, for one, am not going to stand for it.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • If you like, but I'll stand for this no longer.

    Howards End (1992)

  • Their mother had warned them many times that she was not going to stand for cheap behavior.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • This is absolutely disgusting and I'm not going to stand for it.

    And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

  • People will not stand for impeachment, Stone continued.

    GQ

  • I won't stand for it.

    Young Woman and the Sea (2024)

  • I cannot stand for any type of discrimination in the workplace.

Synonyms

to accept
vsto stand for
∞ 3.5

To tolerate an unpleasant situation without complaining

is used for allowing wrong acts rather than only situations
to condone
vsto stand for
79 6.8

Allow wrong or offensive behaviour to continue without stopping it

is broader, covering unpleasant things not only morally wrong acts
to tolerate
vsto stand for
56 3.2

Allow people or ideas you do not agree with

is about allowing unpleasant or wrong things without objection
to abide
vsto stand for
52 4.6

To not tolerate someone or something unpleasant

is broader, including allowing morally wrong acts as well as people
to hold still for
vsto stand for
  • Informal
7.5

Allow something unpleasant without complaining

is also used for allowing morally wrong behaviour without objection

Antonyms

to reject
839 1.9

Refuse to accept someone or something

to object
349 5.1

To say you do not agree with something

How Tolerant

to stand for
  • Informal
89 3.5
to tolerate
290 3.5
to put up with
288 4.3

Surface Forms

stand for infinitive
standing for present participle
stands for third person singular
stood for past
stood for past participle

Morphology

stand + for

The meaning 'to be a candidate' is not directly derivable from 'stand' (hold or defend a position) + 'for' (in support of); a learner who knows the parts would more likely infer 'support' or 'represent' rather than 'run as a candidate.' There is a partial conceptual link (standing implies taking a position or office) and it is a conventional British political usage, so the connection is suggestive but not fully predictable without exposure.

Etymology

Stand for can also be imagined as someone who stands while something bad happens and so allows it to continue. So, it means 'to tolerate' or 'to accept' something without protest.