stand up for
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stand up for (someone or something)
To defend or show one's support for someone or something. We'll never make any progress if we don't have anyone in congress standing up for our cause. Thank you for standing up for me back there. It just felt like everyone was against me.
stand up for someone or something
to take the side of someone or something; to defend someone or something. I hope you will stand up for me if the going gets rough. We will have to stand up for our rights someday.
stand up for
Also, stick up for. Side with, defend, as in Paul always stands up for what he thinks is right, or Ginny has learned to stick up for her family. The first recorded use of the first term is by Shakespeare in King Lear (1:2), when Edmund, Gloucester's bastard son, says: "Now gods, stand up for bastards!" The colloquial variant was first recorded in 1837.
stand up for
1. To side with; defend.
2. To stand up with.