stand for

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

1. (idiomatic) To mean; to symbolize; to represent

   The abbreviation CIA stands for "Central Intelligence Agency".

   • 2014 September 23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian:

     Some teachers festoon every spare inch of wall with vocabulary choices or maths techniques to use, which look great at first, but to some children might appear quite daunting. You'll probably see unfamiliar acronyms such as Walt (We Are Learning To). Be sure to ask what they stand for and how they are used in practice.

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§134”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:

     whether these names do not some of them sometimes stand for the same thing

2. To advocate, to support
3. To tolerate

   We won't stand for that type of behaviour.

• Stanford, forstand