grandstand
Americannoun
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the main seating area of a stadium, racetrack, parade route, or the like, usually consisting of tiers with rows of individual seats.
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the people sitting in these seats.
verb (used without object)
adjective
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situated in a grandstand.
grandstand seats.
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having a vantage point resembling that of a grandstand.
From our office windows on the third floor, we had a grandstand view of the parade.
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intended to impress an onlooker or onlookers.
a grandstand catch.
noun
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a terraced block of seats, usually under a roof, commanding the best view at racecourses, football pitches, etc
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( as modifier )
grandstand tickets
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the spectators in a grandstand
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(modifier) as if from a grandstand; unimpeded (esp in the phrase grandstand view )
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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grandstandsimple
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grandstandssimple
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have grandstandedperfect
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has grandstandedperfect
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am grandstandingprogressive
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are grandstandingprogressive
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is grandstandingprogressive
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have been grandstandingperfect progressive
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has been grandstandingperfect progressive
Past
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grandstandedsimple
-
had grandstandedperfect
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was grandstandingprogressive
-
were grandstandingprogressive
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had been grandstandingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of grandstand
Explanation
As a noun, grandstand means a large seating area for sports spectators. As a verb, it means to show off. So if you dance around in a banana costume at the horse races, you grandstand in the grandstand. Tiered, covered seating at a racetrack or outdoor sports arena is one kind of grandstand. This word has been used since the mid-18th century, and in the late 1800s it was adapted into the baseball slang phrases grandstand player and grandstand play, which referred to theatrical, unnecessary moves athletes made simply to show off. These terms found their way into college slang around the same time, and grandstand became a common way to say "put on airs."
Vocabulary lists containing grandstand
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
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The Mighty Miss Malone
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Displacement
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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.
See Examples For:
And which provides better camera angles than you’d get from any grandstand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
The Tournament of Roses is providing more than 1,000 free grandstand tickets for fire victims to view the parade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
Lawrence Shankland cut the arrears 15 minutes from time before Cammy Devlin set up a grandstand finish.
From Barron's ● Dec. 27, 2025
Slot would have been under even more pressure had Florian Wirtz's 81st-minute shot not deflected in off Nordi Mukiele to set up what Liverpool hoped would be a grandstand finish.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
In the grandstand, the crowd pleaded for Woolf to do something.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Anyone who has never attended the race may be left to wonder: With all the pomp in the grandstands, how does anyone get a clear glimpse of the finish line?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The cheapest tickets in the grandstands are around $35.
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
View-blocking umbrellas are prohibited in parade grandstands and along the route.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
Jansen is due to perform at 16 of the 24 races in 2025, whether that be at the Verstappen grandstands or other events during an F1 weekend.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
Though there were less than two hours of light remaining, the grandstands were filled with spectators.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
And he has grandstanded constantly about Santos’ turpitude on TV.
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2023
“Van Damme certainly grandstanded around the set – he let everyone know who the star was,” he recalls.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 16, 2018
"Performing for you is my life," Rivers grandstanded at the end, "and no one has the right to take it away from me."
From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2014
Worse, members of the committee grandstanded about the testimony, about Hill’s motives.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 26, 2014
You have grandstanded and posed as the debonair adventurer, until it’s come to be second nature.
From The Key to Yesterday by Buck, Charles Neville
You have the extremes that call the ball on so many debates, partly I guess it’s social media, TikTok, it’s the grandstanding by members.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Whatever the grandstanding of pundits, it can't have been an easy decision.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2025
But it is so firmly grounded in truthful and complicated detail drawn from Mr. Dunne’s actual experience that it makes its powerful moral argument without any need for grandstanding or preaching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
Hitler discovered that courtrooms were the perfect platform for his political grandstanding.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2024
He was grandstanding, Inej saw that, buying her time as she leapt over the slate shingles.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
