stand-to

• stand to

Shortened form of "stand-to-arms"

stand-to (plural stands-to or stand-tos)

1. (military) A state of readiness assumed by ground troops at dawn and dusk in wartime.
   • 1915, Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That, (1929), Penguin Modern Classics 1960, p. 86:

     "Stand-to" at dusk for about an hour, work all night, "stand-to" for an hour before dawn. That's the general programme.

stand-to (third-person singular simple present stands-to, present participle standing-to, simple past and past participle stood-to)

1. (military) To assume such a state of readiness.
   • 1929 November, Robert Graves, chapter XII, in Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 141:

     I passed the word along the line for the company to stand-to arms. The N.C.O's whispered hoarsely into the dug-outs: ‘Stand-to, stand-to,’ and out the men tumbled with their rifles in their hands.

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