stay back

present singular third person stays back · participle present staying back · participle past stayed back · past stayed back · alternative stay behind

1. intransitiveTo remain (at work, school, organisation, country, etc.) after normal hours

   Mr Como was quite displeased and he told me to stay back tomorrow and do it.

   2011, My Kiasu Teenage Life in Singapore

   5 more examples

   Many of these students, in fact, do stay back and work in Singapore after their studies are over.

   2009, India Fever: The New Indian Professional in Singapore, page 106

   When parents are late, childcare workers have to stay back late to take care of the children.

   2011, Crisis Management and Public Policy: Singapore's Approach to Economic Resilience

   When caught for breaking the language rule, the punishment was to stay back in school and write lines of repentance for his wrongdoing: but in the school fields and canteens, Leow noted that, “students chattered in Mandarin and Hokkien as they wished with nobody to stop them.”

   2012, A Sociolinguistic History of Early Identities in Singapore: From Colonialism to Nationalism, page 155

   'The monitoring system would require Hock to stay back after school until 5 pm everyday to catch up on his school, have one of the discipline teachers to acknowledge the time he returned home.'

   2016, Singapore Teachers: Narratives of Care, Hope and Commitment, page 66

   'Of course, if we didn’t finish our work we had to stay back, and there was no such thing as overtime.

   2016, Singapore Eurasians: Memories, Hopes and Dreams, page 108

   Synonyms: stay behind, tarry

2. intransitiveTo keep one's distance from a place, often because of some danger.

   ‘No, no, no. You stay back there. I don’t want you anywhere near me.’

   2017, Beneath the Lion City: Irreal Stories of Singapore, page 68

   2 more examples

   'Sir, you have to get back,' said a uniformed voice, an ambulance officer this time. 'We're asking everybody to stay back.' 'I live here,' he said. 'With my wife and my boy. Have you seen them?'

   2011, Her Singapore Fling, page 166

   Other bystanders had noticed him and like Rizby, had kept their distance, but now they began to creep forward to peer at the body. ‘Stay back!’ Rizby yelled. ‘Back! All of you!’

   2017, Singapore Red