on standby

standby | Business English

standby
noun[ C ]
(alsostand-by)uk /ˈstændbaɪ/uspluralstandbys
a person or thing that is available and that can be used when necessary, if another person or thing is not available, or in an emergency:
They manufacture portable GPS systems which can be used as an emergency standby.
TRANSPORT (alsostandby ticket)
a cheap ticket sold just before a flight or a performance if there is a seat available
 fly standby
TRANSPORT
to travel by plane using a ticket that cannot be bought in advance, but that becomes available just before the plane is due to leave:
Employees at some airlines can fly for free if they fly standby.
 on standby
ready to be used or to do something if necessary:
They have 700 gritters and snow ploughs on 24-hour standby in order to prepare for the freezing temperatures.
leave sth on standbyYou should make sure that electrical goods are not left on standby, because it wastes energy.
remain/be put on standbyEconomists are remaining on standby for the all-important employment report for August.
TRANSPORT
a person who is on standby is ready to travel on a plane immediately if a ticket becomes available:
The salesmen book the cheapest flight they can find on the day they want to fly, then go to wait on standby for the flight they really want to get aboard.
standby
adjective[ before noun ]
(alsostand-by)uk /ˈstændbaɪ/us
ready to be used if necessary:
a standby generator
If the computer is left undisturbed for five minutes, it goes into standby mode.
The phone offers up to four hours of talk time and 106 hours of standby time.
ECONOMICS
relating to extra money that a country can borrow from the International Monetary Fund if it has serious financial difficulties:
a standby agreement/arrangement/loan
standby credit
sold just before a flight or a performance if there is a seat available:
a standby flight/seat

Examples of standby

standby
Below them were the standbys, mainly captives and conscripts, followed by the under-age combatants.
Nevertheless, for most physicians in general practice opium-based medications remained a standby.
The physiological relevance for the cell cycle translation pausing and the molecular mechanism of the elongation transitory standby involving polyamines, remain to be determined.
Most people therefore buy particular models (other than the globally known brands) with a very low technical standard (b/w-screen, 24 hours of standby only).
Mobility can be scored in relation to independence (= 0), standby assistance (= 0.5) or hands-on assistance (= 1).
Advertising campaigns spur us on to switch off the lights, not to leave the appliances on standby or to avoid taking our cars.
In this case we will need to mention the pinball posts, although those posts play no role in actually producing the straight-path behaviour; they are merely standby causes.
A much used standby was the assurance that the enquirer would receive a further response "in due course" - though in due course of what was not stated.
Let us opt for flexibility, which requires the opt-out, longer reference periods and reasonable and appropriate differentiation between different types of standby duty.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Workers must be on standby whenever and for however long their employers choose.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
The energy-star label should help to promote energy efficient standby equipment.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
I should therefore recommend that the determining factor be defined in the charter of the joint undertaking as an aircraft standby weight of 600 kg.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
My third point concerns standby duty, i.e. the time during which drivers must be ready to take up work.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Besides, on-call time, which we are discussing here, requires that workers be present at work: everything else is standby duty, which is a different matter entirely.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
They only operate two helicopters on a shuttle service, are often victim to bad weather, and do not have the luxury of 'standby' helicopters in case of mechanical failure.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
See all examples of standby
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.