standee

standee

English

WOTD – 27 June 2017

Standees (sense 1) in a bus in Singapore

Larger-than-life standees (sense 2) of celebrities in front of the Rose Theatre Brampton in Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Etymology

stand +‎ -ee.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stanˈdiː/

  • Audio (UK)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /stænˈdi/
• Rhymes: -iː
• Hyphenation: stand‧ee

Noun

standee (plural standees)

1. Somebody who is forced to stand up, for example, on a crowded bus.
   • 1959 September, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 430-431:

     Recently I received a letter from Mr. A. H. Maclean, who travelled north by the 11-coach "Flying Scotsman", and remarked that the train "was filled to capacity and we were forced to stand in the corridor"—for nearly 270 miles— [...] Obviously the diesel was working well below her load capacity on this schedule and some addition to the formation ought to have been made to accommodate the standees.

2. A free-standing, rigid print (usually life-sized), for instance of a celebrity, often displayed for advertising and promotional purposes.

   Synonym: cut-out

   He took a picture of me with a standee of Darth Vader at the premiere of Star Wars: Episode III.

Further reading

• standee on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• East End, enstead, steaned