to hold fire
47
5.6
- phrasal verb
:
no disparar
- Hold your fire until I give the order.
- tell them to hold fire
- ordered to hold fire
- soldiers hold fire
The next time someone does something you don't like, you can go on the attack, but you can also hold your fire and do the unexpected.
- The next time someone does something you don't like, you can go on the attack, but you can also hold your fire and do the unexpected.
Examples
-
Don't shoot! Hold your fire!
Fiction book (1995) -
Hold your fire and get your men down low.
Fiction book (1995) -
- Everybody hold your fire!
-
And then the order came down to hold our fire.
Fiction book (1997) -
Okay, Johnny, hold your fire...
Fiction book (1991) -
She orders the soldiers to hold their fire.
Academic text (1994) -
Please hold your fire.
-
Now hold your fire!
-
Hold your fire!
-
The commanding officer ordered the soldiers to hold fire until they received further instructions.
Synonyms
∞
1.3
To wait for a short time during a phone call
37
4.2
To wait before doing something
16
3.5
Wait before doing something because you feel unsure
1
8.0
To delay making a decision or taking action
Antonyms
How Quickly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The command 'hold fire' is directly and compositionally built from 'hold' (to restrain) + 'fire' (the firing of guns), so a learner who knows both words can infer the primary meaning 'stop shooting'. The extended sense 'wait before taking action' is a straightforward generalization of restraining an action and is cross-linguistically plausible, so the expression is transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
The phrase hold fire comes from old battle orders. When an officer told soldiers to hold their fire, he meant 'don't shoot' and wait for the next order, so the phrase now means 'to stop shooting or to wait before taking action'.