Jump to content

hold-up

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: holdup and hold up

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

A deverbal from hold up.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

hold-up (plural hold-ups)

  1. (colloquial) A delay or wait.
    Synonyms: cunctation, holdoff; see also Thesaurus:delay
    What is the hold-up?
    • 1959 April, C. R. Clinker and R. A. Dane, “The Railways of Peterborough”, in Railway Magazine, page 230:
      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.
    • 2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, “Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history”, in The Guardian‎[1], archived from the original on 22 April 2021:
      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.
  2. (slang) A robbery at gunpoint.
    Synonyms: armed robbery, stickup
    This is a hold-up! Give us all your money.
    • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:
      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.
  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.
  6. (Nigeria) A traffic jam.

Derived terms

[edit]

Descendants

[edit]
  • → Cebuano: holdap
  • → French: hold-up
  • → Tagalog: holdap

Translations

[edit]

Anagrams

[edit]

French

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

    Borrowed from English hold-up.

    Pronunciation

    [edit]

    Noun

    [edit]

    hold-up m (invariable)

    1. hold-up (robbery)
      • 1968, Serge Gainsbourg, “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

    [edit]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=hold-up&oldid=91390366"