[STANDING ppl. a.] A large block of stone set upright; a menhir, monolith.
c. 1200[?]. Newminster Cartul. (Surtees), 36. Et j acram versus le north de Standenstan.
13[?]. Childh. Jesus, 842, in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXIV. 338. In a Mowntayne he gane it hele Reghte in a standande stane.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 298. He … left him thus besyde the standand stanys.
1601. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 391/2. Ane lang standand stane quhilk standis in direct line betuix the said Sadill-stane and the utter merche stane.
1814. Scott, Diary, 7 Aug., in Lockhart (1837), III. iv. 158. Ride down the loch to Scalloway…. Pass a huge standing stone, or pillar. Here, it is said, the son of an old Earl of the Orkneys met his fate.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. v. 130. The most primitive of these ancient memorials are the unhewn columns, or standing stones, as they are called.
