hold up

Verb

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

1. (informal, intransitive) To wait or delay.
   • Hold up a minute. I want to check something.

   Synonyms:

   hold on, hang on

2. (transitive) To impede; detain.
   • I've got to get to work now. Why are you holding me up?
   • What is holding up traffic?
   1. (idiomatic, transitive) To detain by threatening, usually with a weapon, in order to commit robbery.
      • The guy tried to hold up a bank.
      • "Down, Dom!" he cried, "throw yourself down! Break in, Guido. Break in the door. We are held up!"1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
3. (transitive) To support or lift.
   • Hold up the table while I slide this underneath.
   • In order to accommodate the new platform 4 and the reversibly signalled slow line, a deep cutting had to be cut back and held up in places with a concrete retaining wall.1962 June, David Walters, “The new station and layout at Coventry”, in Modern Railways, page 405
   1. (figuratively, transitive) To highlight, as if lifting up for display.
      • His lectures held up Napoleon as an example of the phenomenon.
      • held up for public ridicule
   2. (idiomatic, transitive) To fulfil or complete one's part of an agreement.
      • I don't think he's holding up his end of the bargain.
4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To withstand; to stand up to; to survive.
   • hold up to scrutiny
   • hold up to heavy use
5. (intransitive) To keep up; not to fall behind; not to lose ground.
   • For what will the World say; Why could not he hold up? What made him come on so heavily, but that he wanted either Management or Metal1697, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects
6. (idiomatic, intransitive) To maintain composure despite hardship.
   • how're you holdin up?
7. (intransitive) To continue to be seen as favorable, to avoid seeming dated.
   • Bride of Frankenstein is an old film, but it holds up.