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on the qui vive. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
Partial calque of French sur le qui-vive (“in a state of heightened vigilance”).
Adverb
on the qui vive
- In a state of heightened vigilance, especially prior to battle.
1920, J[ohn] O[tway] P[ercy] Bland, “ Three Palaces.”, in Administration of Immigration Laws: Hearings before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization: House of Representatives, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session: , Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 373:The political influence wielded by many of the court ladies, and especially by the first lady-in-waiting (mother of the present Emperor), bears a certain resemblance to that which the eunuchs wielded under the later Manchus at the court of Peking. […] And behind the 30 ladies-in-waiting there are the rank and file of female palace attendants, some 300, all of Kyoto stock—quite sufficient to keep any conscientious chamberlain on the qui vive.
1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:The question of who pressed the bell that sounded in Erskine's room, in the night, was a great source of worry to Watt, for a time, and kept him awake at night, on the qui vive.