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Synonyms

on the qui vive

Idioms  

  1. On the alert, vigilant, as in The police have been warned to be on the qui vive for terrorists. This expression, containing the French words for “[long] live who?” originated as a sentinel's challenge to determine a person's political sympathies. The answer expected of allies was something like vive le roi (“long live the king”). It was taken over into English with its revised meaning in the early 1700s, the first recorded use being in 1726.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He was supposed to have had her on the qui vive since she was 15, but now she could not find him.

From Time Magazine Archive

But events darkly occurring in Manchuria kept all the Russias on the qui vive.

From Time Magazine Archive

Royalists, always on the qui vive for a disturbance, attacked it for reasons of their own.

From Time Magazine Archive

Citizens of Sofia were on the qui vive.

From Time Magazine Archive

She looked quite stunning as she walked across the dining room to the table, not at all unlike a girl on the qui vive appropriate to a big college weekend.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.