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3. stand up for

stand up for

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stand up for someone or something

to take the side of someone or something; to defend someone or something. I hope you will stand up for me if the going gets rough. We will have to stand up for our rights someday.

See also: stand, up

stand up for somebody/something

to defend or support someone or something stick up for somebody/something Sometimes you have to stand up for your rights. I stood up for him because he had a right to his opinion.

See also: stand, up

stand up for

Also, stick up for. Side with, defend, as in Paul always stands up for what he thinks is right, or Ginny has learned to stick up for her family. The first recorded use of the first term is by Shakespeare in King Lear (1:2), when Edmund, Gloucester's bastard son, says: "Now gods, stand up for bastards!" The colloquial variant was first recorded in 1837.

See also: stand, up

stand up for

1. To side with; defend.

2. To stand up with.

See also: stand, up