stand still

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

1. (sometimes figurative) To stop moving, to remain motionless.

   My legs were stiff because I'd been standing still for a long time.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 10:12–13:

     12 ¶ Then spake Ioshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord deliuered vp the Amorites before the children of Israel, and hee said in the sight of Israel, Sunne, stand thou still vpon Gibeon, and thou Moone in the valley of Aialon.
     13 And the Sunne stood still, and the Moone stayed, vntill the people had auenged themselues vpō their enemies. Is not this written in the booke of Iasher? So the Sunne stood still in the midst of heauen, and hasted not to goe downe, about a whole day.

   • 2002, Robert Jonathan Tristani, A Virtual Kill, page 303:

     Time seemed to stand still as an idea came to him. He could not outrun the car behind him, but he could outdrive his opponent. And the Fiat was more nimble.

2. to tolerate [with for]
   • 1987, Roger Waters, “Home”, in Radio K.A.O.S.:

     Will you accept your second class status
     A nation of waitresses and waiters
     Will you mix their martinis
     Will you stand still for it
     Or will you take to the hills

• standstill (noun)
• time stands still

stand still (plural stand stills)

1. Obsolete spelling of standstill.

• stillstand

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stand still

1. first/third-person singular preterite of stillstehen