Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💪 To endure 🏗️ To support weight ⏳ To delay 🌟 To praise publicly 🔫 To rob
to hold up

to hold up

90 2.8
To cause a delay in plans or progress
  • phrasal verb
  • /hoʊld ʌp/
translation icon : retrasar
  • Rather, water is not an issue that should hold up a peace agreement.
  • hold up things

And then the government's like, hold up, those are ours, give them back.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • So that might cause trains to be held up at Charles, actually.

  • I got held up in court.

    Lolita (1962)

  • We got really held up by the map going the wrong way.

  • Maybe he got held up.

    Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)

  • Who knew how many times the train would get held up on the way?

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I don't want to hold you up.

    Celebrity (1998)

  • I hope I haven't held you up.

    Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

  • Burleigh's nomination to be ambassador to the Philippines had been held up for nine months in the Senate.

    Academic text (2000)

  • And if the paperwork isn't properly completed, inspectors can hold up an entire shipment, including non-food products.

    Academic text (2003)

  • I was held up in traffic on the way to the meeting.

Synonyms

to delay
vsto hold up
562 1.4

To make something happen later than planned

is about causing lateness or slowdown rather than mere rescheduling
to catch
vsto hold up
374 4.8

To delay someone or make them late

is broader and applies to people or things that are slowed
to hold back
vsto hold up
187 3.2

Stop someone or something from moving forward

means causing a delay or slowdown rather than total prevention
to stall
vsto hold up
166 4.3

To delay doing something on purpose to get more time

is neutral about intent and covers accidental or caused slowdowns
to detain
vsto hold up
45 4.4

To delay someone or something so they are late

is more general causing lateness without implying official custody
to tie up
vsto hold up
25 3.8

Cause a delay that stops activity or movement

focuses more on causing lateness or slowing rather than full blockage

Antonyms

to accelerate
  • Specialized
331 3.7

To move faster or make something happen faster

to hasten
12 4.6

Make something happen sooner

How Delayed

to halt
206 2.4
to stall
166 4.3
to delay
562 1.4
to hold up
90 2.8
to slow down
687 1.4

Surface Forms

hold up infinitive
holding up present participle
holds up third person singular
held up past
held up past participle

Morphology

hold + up

The meaning 'to rob (at gunpoint)' cannot be predicted from the literal senses of 'hold' and 'up' — there is no clear compositional relation that leads to 'rob'. The particle 'up' here contributes to an idiomatic phrasal-verb sense (distinct from literal senses like 'raise' or 'delay'), so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would very likely not infer the robbery meaning.

Etymology

Hold up in the sense of 'delay' comes from the idea of stopping movement by holding it up, like a road block or broken machine that holds up traffic, so it means 'cause a delay'.