holdup

Noun

hold-up (plural hold-ups)

1. (colloquial) A delay or wait.
   • What is the hold-up?

   Synonyms:

   cunctation, holdoff, deferment, delay, dilation, detain, hinder, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation

2. (slang) A robbery at gunpoint.
   • This is a hold-up! Give us all your money.

   Synonyms:

   armed robbery, stickup

3. The holding back of a card that could win a trick in order to use it later.
   • This was another hand on which a holdup caused declarer to lose control and to go down in a sensational way: […]1974, Terence Reese, Master Play in Contract Bridge, page 75
4. (in plural) Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.
5. The inventory of nuclear material within a separation plant.
   • And to the left is a portable gamma counter that tells us the holdup of plutonium recovery facilities.1978, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Intelligence and Military Application of Nuclear Energy Subcommittee, Hearings on H.R. 11036 (H.R. 11686) (page 361)
6. (Nigeria) A traffic jam.