Word.ws English Dictionary

hold over

UK/ˌhəʊld ˈəʊ̯.və/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˌhɔwld ˈɔw.və/

hold over is the misspelling of holdover.

Verb

hold over (third-person singular simple present holds over, present participle holding over, simple past and past participle held over)

  1. (idiomatic, sometimes, transitive) (Of a resource) To support or sustain someone for a limited period.
    • These crisps should hold me over until supper.
    Synonyms:
    tide over, tide through, carry through
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To save, delay.
    • We will have to hold over these files until tomorrow.
  3. (intransitive) To remain in office, possession, residency etc., beyond a certain date.
    • We should hold over this report until the new department lead comes in.
  4. (transitive) To be in a position to harm (someone); to have damaging information on (someone).
    • He's holding those allegations over my head.

Meaning of holdover

Noun

holdover (countable and uncountable, plural holdovers)

  1. (countable) Something left behind, saved or remaining from an earlier time.
    • That policy is a holdover from days of punch card data entry.
  2. The distance (at target) by which a rifle scope is aimed higher than the intended point of impact in order to compensate for bullet drop over the distance to the target.
    • This rangefinder not only measures the distance to the target, but also provides a digital readout of the inches of holdover at that distance.

Synonyms of hold over

Forms of hold over

third-person singular presentholds over
present participleholding over
past participleheld over
pastheld over

Words formed from hold over

Questions about hold over

What does hold over mean?
Hold over means (Of a resource) To support or sustain someone for a limited period.
What is hold over the misspelling of?
Hold over is the misspelling of holdover.
What part of speech is hold over?
Hold over is a verb.
How do you pronounce hold over?
Hold over is pronounced /ˌhəʊld ˈəʊ̯.və/ (UK).
What is the past tense of hold over?
The past tense of hold over is held over.

Words near hold over in the dictionary

  1. hold oneself together
  2. hold onto
  3. hold onto your hat
  4. hold out
  5. hold outs
  6. hold over
  7. hold over someone's head
  8. hold ransom
  9. hold serve
  10. hold short
  11. hold someone's feet to the fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold over (page history and authors); holdover (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:

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

Cite this entry: “hold over.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_over. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.