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A standing army is a permanent professional army.
It is composed of full-time career soldiers and is not disbanded during times of peace.
In Great Britain, and the British Colonies in America, there was a sentiment of distrust of a standing army not under civilian control. In England, this led to the Bill of Rights 1689, which reserves authority over a standing army to Parliament, not the King, and more nuanced in the United States, led to the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) which reserves by virtue of "power of the purse" similar authority to Congress, instead of to the President.
(source: Wikipedia)The opposite of a "standing army" is the militia.
What Militarism Means | The American Conservative