stand-up adj.
1. of a fight, determined, uninhibited, conducted by the rules; lit. face-to-face.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Observer 26 May 2: The umpires called out to Belcher [following a foul], and told him, ‘It was a stand-up fight’ and Neat must take care what he was about’. | |
 | Peter Parley’s Annual 268: You are a cowardly ruffian, and no Englishman; you are afraid of a fair stand up fight. | |
| Boy Mill 104: Hobhouse, you had much better give him a hiding in a fair stand-up fight : depend upon it. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Nov. 3/4: Nolan believes in a square, stand-up-revolver-roaring-fight. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Blue Cap, the Bushranger 97/1: Alick and Charlie had a bit of a barney, which ended up a regular, stand-up fight. | |
| Selections 140: To this day he thinks a good stand-up fight does boys a world of good. | |
| Sands of Destint 88: The Arabs [...] were thirsting for a first-rate stand-up fight, and we had cheated them of it. |
2. (US Und.) honest, trustworthy, dependable.
| Barnaby Rudge (2003) 329: He was a queer subject altogether [...] one of the finest, stand-up men, you ever see. | |
| Dly News (NY) 7 Mar. 69/2: He’s smart, that Johnson. A stand up straight guy. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 229: ‘He’s stand-up.’ [...] Stand-up was the highest praise in the waterfront book. | |
| Panic in Needle Park (1971) 198: You’ll love these people, too. They’re real good stand-up people. | |
| Cogan’s Trade (1975) 23: He’s basically all right. And he’s very, very stand-up. | |
| Carlito’s Way 20: They gonna need distributors with brains and with heart — stand-up motherfuckers. | |
| Suicide Hill 132: I've been casing this score, but I didn't know how stand-up you guys were. Are you with me?’. | |
| Homeboy 175: The Sings were standup, having the Golden Boar goods on them was superfluous insurance. | |
| Prison Sl. 34: Solid Con also Stand-Up Convict A trustworthy and well respected inmate. The prison code of ethics places a solid con near the top of the prison population. | |
| Eddie’s World 37: He could be a stand-up con and spend the next fifteen years in the joint, or he could be a survivor and get out in two. | |
| Random Family 163: He wanted a wife to help him through his sentence, a pretty enough stand-up girl. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 126: He was stand-up, if that’s what you were worried about. Played dumb as a stump. | |
| Bangs 282: Lisano was a stand-up cop and superb influence on the younger troopers. | |
| Price You Pay 15: [Y]ou’re just allowing stand-up citizens to turn an existing downside of the personal economy into a revenue stream. | |
| Cherry 44: ‘Tommy just got out of prison [...] Tommy’s a real stand-up guy’. | |
| (con. 1991-94) City of Margins 27: ‘Sal and Frankie.’ ‘Stand-up guys’. | |
| Joey Piss Pot 60: ‘Nobody cares they were stand up and did time’. |
In compounds
(US) an honest, dependable person, one who ‘stands up to be counted’; criminal use suggests one who will not break under questioning.
| It’s a Racket! 239: —To have the courage of one’s convictions; courageous; e.g. ‘He’s a stand-up guy.’ ‘He’ll stand up no matter what pressure they put on him.’. | |
| City Editor 221: [T]he definition which Don Skene, the boxing writer, gives of a gentleman—‘a stand-up guy who will fight’. | |
| Police Headquarters (1956) 282: Is Lipsius a stand-up guy? | |
| Walk on the Wild Side 60: Tex, you’re a real stand-up kid. | |
| Who Live In Shadow (1960) 96: He was solid. He was ‘a stand-up boy’. | |
| Cannibals 39: This is the greatest stand-up guy you’ll ever run across. | |
| Friends of Eddie Coyle 87: From what I hear, a genuine stand-by guy. | |
| Animal Factory 45: Tony Bork . . . not a tough guy but personable and known as a ‘stand-up dude’. | |
| London Embassy 85: I took him for a clean, stand-up guy! | |
| Because the Night 34: ‘I've published several monographs on my findings, without ever violating the anonymity of my patients. In criminal parlance I'm a “stand-up guy”’. | |
| Wiseguy (2001) 205: There are no standup guys in the drug trade. | |
| Crack War (1991) 196: Todd Scott was no more of a stand-up guy than that rat Perry Bellamy. | |
| Grand Central Winter (1999) 165: The kind of stand-up guy that he has come to recognize as worthy of his full trust and loyalty. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 143: Anthony’s a stand-up kid. | |
| Turning Angel 109: You ask me, Drew Elliott is a stand-up guy. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] He was a stand-up guy and a good friend. | |
| ‘So Long, Johnnie Scumbag’ in Dirty Words [ebook] ‘Sharkie was a standup broad. She didn't cry foul or nothin’’. | |
| ‘Jet Fuel’ 🎵 But it's not so much who I am as what I am / A stand up guy, man of respect. | |
| The Force [ebook] ‘Stand-up guys [...] don’t get bent over’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see stand-up n. (3)
(UK society) anything mean or niggardly.
| (ref. to 1860) in Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |