standpat
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of standpat
First recorded in 1900–05; noun, adj. use of verb phrase stand pat
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.
Strange it is that this "standpat" Republican should have been born in Guilford, N. C., in 1836 in the reign of Andrew Jackson, whose Democratic pals spilled cider on the White House carpets.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Nearly everywhere, company stores owned by the standpat operators continued to sell food on credit to John Lewis' abstaining miners.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Along with its legislative record, each Congress writes its own short hand label: innovative or standpat, Micawberish or Scroogian, spineless or rebellious.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Immigration has become a standpat, almost mechanical phenomenon.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Henry, you may remember, delivered the Roosevelt valedictory at the Chicago Republican convention in 1912, when he kidded the standpat crowd out of every Republican state in the union but two at the election.
From The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White
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.