Word.ws English Dictionary

holds short

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

Meaning of hold short

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To wait before entering a runway or a taxiway until given clearance to proceed.
    • Can I cross runway 4L? — No, hold short of 4L for now.

Questions about holds short

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

Words near holds short in the dictionary

  1. holds onto
  2. holds out
  3. holds over
  4. holds over someone's head
  5. holds ransom
  6. holds short
  7. holds someone's feet to the fire
  8. holds someone's hand
  9. holds space
  10. holds still
  11. holds tack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holds short (page history and authors); hold short (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 short.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holds_short. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.