stand in for

Idioms  

1. Substitute for, as in He's kindly agreed to stand in for me at the reception. [Early 1900s]

---

Example Sentences

Credits at the end of “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” attribute the creation of the Bride assassin to “Q & U” — stark-white capital letters that stand in for Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman.

From Los Angeles Times

Webster and Hopkins’s unique creation invites readers to stand in for the three main characters— the debutante Helen; the caddish Jed; and the good guy Saunders—as these hapless young people confront romantic and ethical conundrums.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Bloodline” reminds me of the breed of darkly comic postwar novels by Robert Coover, William H. Gass, Harry Crews and others, in which regional manias stand in for a broader national lunacy.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Kari and I could stand in for the human talent that we were in the scene with Indy, but I would not say we were acting. We weren’t,” said Leonberg.

From Salon

Anthony Solis sits with Ortega on a panel that approves private attorneys to stand in for the public defender’s office when it has a conflict of interest.

From Los Angeles Times