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If you stand pat in draw poker you're betting on the cards in your hand being better than any you're likely to draw. It didn't take long for stand pat to move from the poker table, where it first appeared in the late 1800s, to the realm of politics; by the early 20th century, to stand pat was to oppose any change in U.S. tariff policy. The term continues to be used mainly in U.S. English, where it's applied to everything from a coach's decision not to change out players during a game to a homeowner's decision not to refinance. The nouns standpatter ("one who resists or opposes change") and standpattism ("resistance to change" or "reluctance to take positive action") are also used, although generally only in political contexts.
Examples of standpat in a Sentence
Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 June 2025
Rams Rams’ Jared Verse and Braden Fiske look to run it back again
June 4, 2025
So the Rams stood pat with the same defensive backs from last season.
—Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times, 20 June 2025
The case was filed at a moment when major toy corporations, like Hasbro and Mattel, were standing pat, seemingly wary of confronting the White House.
—John Cassidy, New Yorker, 9 June 2025
On Friday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the jobs report for April, and it’s expected that the US economy added 135,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate stood pat at 4.2%, according to FactSet consensus economists estimates.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 1 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Standpat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/standpat. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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stand pat
verb
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