to hold down
15
3.9
- phrasal verb
- /hoʊld daʊn/
:
mantenerse en un empleo
- Teach us a trade... so that when we get out of here... we'll be able to hold down a job.
- hold down a job
You can't just be a shaman, a medicine man, a wise man, and hold down a regular old job.
- You can't just be a shaman, a medicine man, a wise man, and hold down a regular old job.
- You know, I mean, I really just went from, you know, I could like, couldn't even hold down a job in a bar.
- In the five years she's known him, she says he struggled to hold down a job and has resorted to stealing money from her.
- But, you know, there's holding down a job when you're a teenager and then there's holding a job as a long succession of jobs when you're older.
Examples
-
Growing up, my dad could never hold down a job.
-
Perhaps clinically depressed people have more trouble holding down a job, causing them to slip into poverty.
Blog text (12) -
And my mother could never hold down a job.
-
When I was your age, I went to school, and I held down a job.
-
Drugs cost money, but they also make it hard to hold down a normal job.
Blog text (6) -
Well, Jane was never very good at holding down a job.
-
Some had trouble holding down a job because of alcohol abuse.
Academic text (1991) -
Forty percent of these Grade 10 students held down part-time jobs.
Academic text (1991) -
But they're geeks who can dress themselves and hold down a job at a major university.
-
Despite the economic downturn, she managed to hold down her job at the bookstore for over two years.
Synonyms
180
3.0
To keep something and not let it go
9
3.7
To keep a job for a long time despite problems
Antonyms
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
hold + down
There is a clear link between 'hold' (to keep or retain) and the particle 'down' contributing a sense of maintaining or keeping something in place, so a learner who knows the constituents could infer a general meaning of keeping or retaining. However, the specific collocation 'hold down a job/position' (maintain employment over time, often under difficulty) is a conventionalized usage of the phrasal verb and not fully predictable from the parts alone, making it only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Hold down when used about a job comes from the idea of keeping your place by holding it down, like staying in a seat so no one takes your position. So it means 'to keep a job'.