standing ground

noun

A place on which someone or something can stand firmly, especially in order to fight a contest or to take a secure view of something; a secure foundation.

First used 17th c.
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Meanings

nounstanding ground (plural standing grounds)

plural standing grounds

  1. figurativelyA place on which someone or something can stand firmly, especially in order to fight a contest or to take a secure view of something; a secure foundation.First known use 17th c.

    Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly.

    1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book I, chapter 7
    1 more example

    In opposing them we shall proceed […] on that firm standing-ground which all our truly great Divines have marked out, of adherence to the principles of the Ancient Church.

    1848, William Hodge Mill, Five Sermons on the Nature of Christianity, section 2
Cite this entry
APA

standing ground. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/standing%20ground

MLA

“standing ground.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/standing%20ground. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “standing ground,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/standing%20ground.

Source: standing ground on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.