Adjacent Words

bystander definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a nonparticipant spectator

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1584 one present but not taking part in a situation or event ; a chance spectator

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a person who stands by but does not take part; a mere spectator.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bystander By"stand`er, n. [By + stander, equiv. to stander-by; cf. AS. big-standan to stand by or near.] One who stands near; a spectator; one who has no concern with the business transacting. He addressed the bystanders and scattered pamphlets among them. --Palfrey. Syn: Looker on; spectator; beholder; observer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bystanders) A bystander is a person who is present when something happens and who sees it but does not take part in it. It looks like an innocent bystander was killed instead of you. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Spectator, looker-on.

Moby Thesaurus

TV-viewer, abutter, adjoiner, attestant, attestator, attester, beholder, bird-watcher, borderer, cojuror, compurgator, deponent, drugstore cowboy, earwitness, eyewitness, gaper, gazer, gazer-on, girl-watcher, goggler, immediate neighbor, informant, informer, kibitzer, looker, looker-on, neighbor, neighborer, observer, ogler, onlooker, passerby, perceiver, percipient, seer, sidewalk superintendent, spectator, spectatress, spectatrix, swearer, tangent, televiewer, television-viewer, testifier, video-gazer, viewer, voucher, watcher, witness