hold-up

plural hold-ups

1. colloquialA delay or wait.

   What is the hold-up?

   2 more examples

   The crossing caused serious congestion with long traffic hold-ups, and had been a bone of contention between the local authorities and the railway for over eighty years. It was controlled from Fletton Road Junction Signalbox (removed at the same time) and, until a wheel was installed in 1920, required two gatemen on each turn of duty.

   1959 April 28, C. R. Clinker and R. A. Dane, “The Railways of Peterborough”, in Railway Magazine, page 230

   The curse has been Spanish ineptitude feeding Gibraltarian intransigence. Border hold-ups are counterproductive to winning hearts and minds, as were blundering Argentinian landings on the outer Falklands.

   2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, “Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2021

   Synonyms: cunctation, holdoff, cunctation, deferment, delay, dilation, detain, halt

2. slangA robbery at gunpoint.

   This is a hold-up! Give us all your money.

   1 more example

   They didn't get shot to death in hold-ups, strangled to death in rapes, stabbed to death in saloons, bludgeoned to death with axes by parents or children or die summarily by some other act of God.

   1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168

   Synonyms: armed robbery, stickup

3. bridgeThe holding back of a card that could win a trick in order to use it later.

   In a holdup, a player delays taking a trick until opponents' entries are reduced.

   2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, The Bridge Game

   1 more example

   This was another hand on which a holdup caused declarer to lose control and to go down in a sensational way: […]

   1974, Terence Reese, Master Play in Contract Bridge, page 75

4. in pluralWomen's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.
5. governmentThe inventory of nuclear material within a separation plant.

   And to the left is a portable gamma counter that tells us the holdup of plutonium recovery facilities.

   1978, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Intelligence and Military Application of Nuclear Energy Subcommittee, Hearings on H.R. 11036 (H.R. 11686) (page 361)

   1 more example

   During process operations and temporary shutdown, the holdup within the facility is also known as the in-process inventory.

   1989, Energy Research Abstracts, page 2046

6. NigeriaA traffic jam.