stand fire

stand fire (third-person singular simple present stands fire, present participle standing fire, simple past and past participle stood fire)

1. (idiomatic, military) To put oneself in the way of an enemy's firing.
   • 1909, Joseph John Doke, M. K. Gandhi: Indian Patriot in South Africa, Chapter 13:

     They were again under fire at Vaal Krantz, the shells dropping a few yards in front of them as the bearers removed the men. Hospital orderlies, water-carriers, nurses, bearers, all were willing to do or be anything in this dire need; and although not infrequently obliged to accept insults or to stand fire, they acquitted themselves with great credit, and earned the unstinted praise of the soldiers.

   • 1917, Harris Dickson, s:The Unpopular History of the United States by Uncle Sam Himself, Chapter 14:

     It is perfectly possible to take a thousand individuals, each of whom is individually fearless, form them hastily into a regiment, and collectively they will not stand fire. A thousand individual heroes may easily make one collective regimental coward. Such is the incomprehensible psychology of the mob.

2. (idiomatic) To put oneself in a position vulnerable to rebuke or criticism

   Synonym: face the music

• firing line

• “stand”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Standifer