Word.ws English Dictionary

holds off

holds off is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hold off.

Meaning of hold off

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To delay (someone or something) temporarily; to keep at bay.
    • Let's try to hold off the lawyers until we are ready for them.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive, transitive) To delay commencing (an action until some specified time or event has passed).
    • Hold off (on) the decision one more day so I can answer your question.

Questions about holds off

What is holds off the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Holds off is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hold off.

Words near holds off in the dictionary

  1. holds in hand
  2. holds it
  3. holds it down
  4. holds it in
  5. holds it together
  6. holds off
  7. holds on
  8. holds one's alcohol
  9. holds one's breath
  10. holds one's drink
  11. holds one's fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holds off (page history and authors); hold off (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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Cite this entry: “holds off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holds_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.