English · Idiom Candidate

stand on someone's shoulders

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Build upon someone's work or discoveries

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Xây dựng dựa trên công việc hoặc khám phá của người khác

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: physical image of standing on someone's shoulders

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The scientist stood on Newton's shoulders to develop her theory

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Arms

Common questions

What does “stand on someone's shoulders” mean?

Build upon someone's work or discoveries Literally: physical image of standing on someone's shoulders

Is “stand on someone's shoulders” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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