hold one's fire

hold one's fire phrase: do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile.

Phrase

hold one's fire

Do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile.
(colloquial, idiomatic) Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet.
- Hold your fire and let me explain.

Verb

hold one's fire (third-person singular simple present holds one's fire, present participle holding one's fire, simple past and past participle held one's fire)

(intransitive) To refrain from criticism.

Antonyms of hold one's fire

return fire

Forms of hold one's fire

third-person singular present	holds one's fire
present participle	holding one's fire
past participle	held one's fire
past	held one's fire

Questions about hold one's fire

What does hold one's fire mean?: Hold one's fire means do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile.
What part of speech is hold one's fire?: Hold one's fire can be a phrase or a verb.

Words near hold one's fire in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold one's fire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-hold your fire.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hold one's fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_one%27s_fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.