| Library / English Dictionary |
HOLD UP
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Cause to be slowed down or delayed
Example:
she delayed the work that she didn't want to perform
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "hold up" is one way to...):
decelerate; retard; slow; slow down; slow up (lose velocity; move more slowly)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold up"):
stonewall (engage in delaying tactics or refuse to cooperate)
catch (delay or hold up; prevent from proceeding on schedule or as planned)
stall (deliberately delay an event or action)
buy time (act so as to delay an event or action in order to gain an advantage)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Derivation:
holdup (the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Be the physical support of; carry the weight of
Example:
What's holding that mirror?
Synonyms:
hold; hold up; support; sustain
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold up"):
brace (support by bracing)
truss (support structurally)
prop; prop up; shore; shore up (support by placing against something solid or rigid)
underpin (support from beneath)
bracket (support with brackets)
pole (support on poles)
chock (support on chocks)
carry (bear or be able to bear the weight, pressure,or responsibility of)
block (support, secure, or raise with a block)
scaffold (provide with a scaffold for support)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Hold up something as an example; hold up one's achievements for admiration
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "hold up" is one way to...):
display; exhibit; expose (to show, make visible or apparent)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sense 4
Meaning:
Rob at gunpoint or by means of some other threat
Synonyms:
hold up; stick up
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "hold up" is one way to...):
rob (take something away by force or without the consent of the owner)
"Hold up" entails doing...:
assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)
Domain category:
crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold up"):
mug (rob at gunpoint or with the threat of violence)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
holdup (robbery at gunpoint)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Continue to live and avoid dying
Example:
One crash victim died, the other lived
Synonyms:
endure; go; hold out; hold up; last; live; live on; survive
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
"Hold up" entails doing...:
be; live (have life, be alive)
Verb group:
be; live (have life, be alive)
exist; live; subsist; survive (support oneself)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold up"):
hold up; hold water; stand up (resist or withstand wear, criticism, etc.)
perennate (survive from season to season, of plants)
live out (live out one's life; live to the end)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Sentence example:
The business is going to hold up
Sense 6
Meaning:
Resist or withstand wear, criticism, etc.
Example:
This theory won't hold water
Synonyms:
hold up; hold water; stand up
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "hold up" is one way to...):
endure; go; hold out; hold up; last; live; live on; survive (continue to live and avoid dying)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sense 7
Meaning:
Resist or confront with resistance
Example:
The bridge held
Synonyms:
defy; hold; hold up; withstand
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "hold up" is one way to...):
hold out; resist; stand firm; withstand (stand up or offer resistance to somebody or something)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold up"):
brave; brave out; endure; weather (face and withstand with courage)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Context examples:
If the findings hold up in human studies, the authors say, the result could be that there's a cheap, safe way to reduce the months-long treatment time for one of the world's leading killers.
(Vitamin C Might Shorten Tuberculosis Treatment Time, Study Indicates, VOA/Steve Baragona)
In this necessity I was forced to swim behind, and push the boat forward, as often as I could, with one of my hands; and the tide favouring me, I advanced so far that I could just hold up my chin and feel the ground.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Ah! said he, I have this load to carry: to be sure it is silver, but it is so heavy that I can’t hold up my head, and you must know it hurts my shoulder sadly.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Elinor, who saw as plainly by this, as if she had seen the direction, that it must come from Willoughby, felt immediately such a sickness at heart as made her hardly able to hold up her head, and sat in such a general tremour as made her fear it impossible to escape Mrs. Jennings's notice.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
“She tried to hold up after that; and many a time, when they told her she was thoughtless and light-hearted, made believe to be so; but it was all a bygone then. She never told her husband what she had told me—she was afraid of saying it to anybody else—till one night, a little more than a week before it happened, when she said to him: “My dear, I think I am dying.”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mr. Chillip was married again to a tall, raw-boned, high-nosed wife; and they had a weazen little baby, with a heavy head that it couldn't hold up, and two weak staring eyes, with which it seemed to be always wondering why it had ever been born.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
