hold my beer

9.9

A joking way to say you will try something daring or foolish after someone else does

idiom

Slang

: aguanta mi cerveza

Before trying the difficult skateboard trick, he shouted, 'hold my beer!'

Examples

Whenever someone claims a task is impossible, Dave is the first to say, 'hold my beer.'
He said, "Hold my beer while I climb that tree!"
'You call that a challenge?' she laughed, 'hold my beer.'
Just watch me hold my beer!
Before trying the difficult skateboard trick, he shouted, 'hold my beer!'
Whenever someone claims a task is impossible, Dave is the first to say, 'hold my beer.'
'You call that a challenge?' she laughed, 'hold my beer.'

Synonyms

to hold my alcohol

vshold my beer

Slang

9.9

A joking request to someone to hold your drink before doing something daring

uses a specific drink type rather than a general drink in casual speech

How Reckless

hold my beer

Slang

9.9

to hold my alcohol

Slang

9.9

Surface Forms

hold my beer main

Morphology

hold + mine + beer

The literal sense 'hold my beer' (ask someone to take care of my beer) is directly derivable from the constituents, and the idiomatic use — a humorous challenge/announcement that one will attempt something daring or foolish — is a pragmatic extension of that literal scenario. Because the idiomatic, boastful/confrontational nuance is a culturally specific, conversational convention that is not fully predictable from the words alone, this item is best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

Hold my beer comes from the clear image of someone handing a friend their drink—asking them to hold the beer—so they can use both hands to try a daring or showy stunt. So today people say it to mean 'I'm going to try something risky or foolish'.