hold up

present singular third person holds up · participle present holding up · participle past held up · past held up

1. informalintransitiveTo wait or delay.

   Hold up a minute. I want to check something.

   Synonyms: hold on, hang on

2. transitiveTo impede; detain.

   What is holding up traffic?

   3 more examples

   I've got to get to work now. Why are you holding me up?

   Herds of wandering reindeer are frequently seen, and may even hold up the train while they cross the unfenced line to reach their feeding grounds.

   1958 December 28, M. D. Greville and H. A. Vallance, “Sweden's Inland Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 829

   It worked to perfection. Ferrari's decision not to stop on the next lap simply made life easier, especially when Alonso was held up by Marussia's Charles Pic during that period - for which the Frenchman earned a drive-through penalty.

   2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport

   1. idiomatictransitiveTo detain by threatening, usually with a weapon, in order to commit robbery.

      The guy tried to hold up a bank.

      1 more example

      "Down, Dom!" he cried, "throw yourself down! Break in, Guido. Break in the door. We are held up!"

      1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

      Synonyms: stick up

3. transitiveTo support or lift.

   Hold up the table while I slide this underneath.

   2 more examples

   In order to accommodate the new platform 4 and the reversibly signalled slow line, a deep cutting had to be cut back and held up in places with a concrete retaining wall.

   1962 June, David Walters, “The new station and layout at Coventry”, in Modern Railways, page 405

   Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

   1. figurativelytransitiveTo highlight, as if lifting up for display.

      held up for public ridicule

      1 more example

      His lectures held up Napoleon as an example of the phenomenon.

   2. idiomatictransitiveTo fulfil or complete one's part of an agreement.

      I don't think he's holding up his end of the bargain.

4. To persist.
   1. idiomaticintransitiveTo withstand; to stand up to; to survive.

      hold up to scrutiny

      2 more examples

      hold up to heavy use

      The now infamous '108 woodlands' figure published by the Woodlands Trust, and later used by others to infer that HS2 would destroy 108 woodlands, does not hold up to scrutiny.

      2023 August 23, Chris Howe, “Green screen: HS2's route through the shires”, in RAIL, number 990, page 34

   2. intransitiveTo keep up; not to fall behind; not to lose ground.

      For what will the World say; Why could not he hold up? What made him come on so heavily, but that he wanted either Management or Metal

      1697, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects

   3. idiomaticintransitiveTo maintain composure despite hardship.

      how're you holdin up?

   4. intransitiveTo continue to be seen as favorable, to avoid seeming dated.

      Bride of Frankenstein is an old film, but it holds up.