to stand up against
- phrasal verb
- /stænd ʌp əˈɡɛnst/
- She decided it was time to stand up against the unfair treatment at her workplace.
- willing to stand up against
It is hard to stand up against outside pressure.
- It is hard to stand up against outside pressure.
- But we ought to prudently, justly, courageously stand up against wrong behavior.
- In fact, a lot of the people who I call Bravehearts who stand up against bullies were bullied.
- I'm not saying that you ought to go grab your arms and weapons and stand up against the government or the opposition that way.
- In its place, the next fad will rise and we will have to stand up against it again.
- And, and, and he was brave enough and Washington and all the the others brave enough to stand up against the most powerful empire in the world.
- But some discussions about what why bullying is wrong, how to stand up for it, how to stand up against it.
- The only hope for Canada are probably the military aged men who are going to stand up against us as an opposition while we're invading.
- Courage involves standing up against that, and this is where that, that greatness of soul part, I think, comes in.
- Musk, who is standing up against the establishment, He's not OK with what the establishment's trying to do.
- And if you stand up against that, you're toast.
- Far left communism, Marxism based organisation, Socialist Worker Party, Antifa, Unite against fascism, all far left organisations stand up against racism.
- For the rest of us Americans, we must stand up for what we know is right and stand up against what we know is wrong.
- So I demonstrated what I honestly believe at the time was defending myself and standing up against bullies.
Examples
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You know, the second one was a man who stood up against slavery.
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We, as a society, need to stand up against evil and no longer accept these acts.
Blog text (6) -
I know it can get worse, but I also think that not standing up against this is even worse than jail.
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For the rest of us Americans, we must stand up for what we know is right and stand up against what we know is wrong.
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The hero here is a hero who stands up against the social order.
Blog text (26) -
Rev. Martin Luther King taught the nation to stand up against unjust systems.
Blog text (11) -
It's time to really stand up against the NRA and other huge lobbying groups.
Blog text (18) -
The problem is that few politicians are willing to stand up against a politically expedient bill because it is unconstitutional.
Academic text (2002) -
Your commentary has always made me admire you for standing up against misogyny and bigotry.
Blog text (7) -
If they don't stand up against this, they're complicit.
Synonyms
To try hard to oppose or overcome something difficult
To be against something and try to stop it
Act against authority, rules or change
To act against a rule, law, or popular opinion
Resist an attack or criticism by responding
Openly refuse to obey someone or seem to resist a force like time
Join others to fight against those in power
Publicly say you are strongly against something or someone
To show in public that you strongly disagree with something
Publicly say you strongly agree or disagree with something
Keep your decision or opinion when others try to make you change
To say in public that you do not support something
Refuse to change your mind when others disagree
To state an opinion strongly and refuse to change it when others disagree
Antonyms
How Strongly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to resist or oppose' is directly derivable from combining 'stand' (to endure/resist) with 'against' (expressing opposition), while 'up' functions as an intensifying particle that strengthens the sense of active resistance. This verb + particle/preposition pattern is common and has cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Stand up against comes from a simple image: you stand up, that is get to your feet, and you put yourself against a person or problem to resist it. That's why the phrase means 'to resist or oppose someone or something'.