Word.ws English Dictionary

holding pattern

holding pattern noun: a path taken by an aircraft waiting to land.

Noun

holding pattern (plural holding patterns)

  1. A path taken by an aircraft waiting to land.
    • The plane flew in a holding pattern for half an hour because one runway was closed.
  2. (idiomatic) Any failure to advance; useless or unproductive activity.
    • This project is in a holding pattern until all the parts arrive.
    • All of Sellafield is in a holding pattern, trying to keep waste safe until it can be consigned to the ultimate strongroom: the geological disposal facility (GDF), bored hundreds of metres into the Earth’s rock, a project that could cost another £53bn.December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian

holding pattern meaning in Tamil

holding pattern in Tamil

கீழிறங்க காத்திருக்கும் வான்கலப்பறப்பு

Forms of holding pattern

pluralholding patterns

Questions about holding pattern

What does holding pattern mean?
Holding pattern means a path taken by an aircraft waiting to land.
What is holding pattern in Tamil?
Holding pattern in Tamil is கீழிறங்க காத்திருக்கும் வான்கலப்பறப்பு. See Holding pattern meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is holding pattern?
Holding pattern is a noun.
What is the plural of holding pattern?
The plural of holding pattern is holding patterns.

Words near holding pattern in the dictionary

  1. holding oneself together
  2. holding onto
  3. holding out
  4. holding over
  5. holding over someone's head
  6. holding pattern
  7. holding patterns
  8. holding ransom
  9. holding short
  10. holding someone's feet to the fire
  11. holding someone's hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holding pattern (page history and authors); holding pattern (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

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

Cite this entry: “holding pattern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holding_pattern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.