hold-up

See also: holdup and hold up

English

Noun

hold-up (plural hold-ups)

1. (colloquial) A delay or wait.

   Synonyms: cunctation, holdoff; see also Thesaurus:delay

   What is the hold-up?

2. A robbery at gunpoint.

   Synonyms: armed robbery, stickup

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

3. (bridge) The holding back of a card that could win a trick in order to use it later.
   • 1974, Terence Reese, Master Play in Contract Bridge (page 75)

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

   • 2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, The Bridge Game

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

4. (in the plural) Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.
5. (military) The inventory of nuclear material within a separation plant.
   • 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)

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

   • 1989, Energy Research Abstracts (page 2046)

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

Descendants

• → Cebuano: holdap
• → French: hold-up
• → Tagalog: holdap

Translations

a delay or wait

• German: Verzögerung (de) f, Stillstand (de) m, Stockung f, Aufhalten n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: poślizg (pl) m

a robbery at gunpoint

• Bulgarian: грабеж (bg) m (grabež)
• Finnish: ryöstö (fi)
• French: hold-up (fr) m
• German: bewaffneter Raubüberfall m
• Italian: rapina (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: latrocínio (pt)
• Russian: грабёж (ru) m (grabjóž), налёт (ru) m (naljót), разбой (ru) m (razboj) (formal)
• Swedish: rån (sv) n

(in the plural) Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders

• Italian: autoreggente (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

hold up

Anagrams

• Uphold, uphold

---

French

Alternative forms

• holdup

Etymology

English hold-up

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɔl.dœp/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

hold-up m (plural hold-up)

1. hold-up (robbery)
   • 1968, Serge Gainsbourg (lyrics and music), “Hold Up”, in Initials B.B., performed by Serge Gainsbourg ft. Madeline Bell:

     Je suis venu pour te voler / Cent millions de baisers / […] / C’est un hold-up ! / Eh ouais, c’est un hold-up !

     I came to steal / a hundred million kisses from you / […] / This is a hold-up! / Oh yes, it's a hold-up!

Further reading

• “hold-up”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.