HOLD BACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hold back mean? 

• HOLD BACK (verb)
  The verb HOLD BACK has 6 senses:

1. hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of

2. refrain from doing

3. wait before acting

4. secure and keep for possible future use or application

5. hold back; keep from being perceived by others

6. prevent the action or expression of

  Familiarity information: HOLD BACK used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOLD BACK (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

arrest; check; contain; hold back; stop; turn back

Context example:

Turn back the tide of communism

Hypernyms (to "hold back" is one way to...):

defend (be on the defensive; act against an attack)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold back"):

cut down; cut out (intercept (a player))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Refrain from doing

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

forbear; hold back

Context example:

she forbore a snicker

Hypernyms (to "hold back" is one way to...):

forbear; refrain (resist doing something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Wait before acting

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

hold back; hold off; wait

Context example:

the scientists held off announcing their results until they repeated the experiment

Hypernyms (to "hold back" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold back"):

hold out (wait uncompromisingly for something desirable)

delay (act later than planned, scheduled, or required)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

Sentence example:

They hold back a long time

Sense 4

Meaning:

Secure and keep for possible future use or application

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

hold; hold back; keep back; retain

Context example:

I reserve the right to disagree

Hypernyms (to "hold back" is one way to...):

hold on; keep (retain possession of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold back"):

hold down (keep)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They hold back the money

Sense 5

Meaning:

Hold back; keep from being perceived by others

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

conceal; hold back; hold in

Context example:

She conceals her anger well

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold back"):

occult (hide from view)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Prevent the action or expression of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

hold back; keep; keep back; restrain

Context example:

she struggled to restrain her impatience at the delays

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hold back"):

hold (keep from exhaling or expelling)

blink; blink away; wink (keep back by blinking)

harness; rein; rule (keep in check)

baffle; regulate (restrain the emission of (sound, fluid, etc.))

swallow (keep from expressing)

confine (prevent from leaving or from being removed)

check; contain; control; curb; hold; hold in; moderate (lessen the intensity of; temper; hold in restraint; hold or keep within limits)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

Hold back your shoulders, and carry your hands easily, no matter if your gloves do pinch.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Surely then it would be bitter shame to me, and also to you, since my fame is yours, that I should now hold back if a man's work is to be done.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mercury retrograde is never a good time to buy electronic items or machines, so you likely had to hold back last month.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Hold back to a later time.

(Defer, NCI Thesaurus)

I am so glad that she consented to hold back and let us men do the work.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At last, the same gentleman who had been my interpreter, said, “he was desired by the rest to set me right in a few mistakes, which I had fallen into through the common imbecility of human nature, and upon that allowance was less answerable for them. That this breed of struldbrugs was peculiar to their country, for there were no such people either in Balnibarbi or Japan, where he had the honour to be ambassador from his majesty, and found the natives in both those kingdoms very hard to believe that the fact was possible: and it appeared from my astonishment when he first mentioned the matter to me, that I received it as a thing wholly new, and scarcely to be credited. That in the two kingdoms above mentioned, where, during his residence, he had conversed very much, he observed long life to be the universal desire and wish of mankind. That whoever had one foot in the grave was sure to hold back the other as strongly as he could. That the oldest had still hopes of living one day longer, and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which nature always prompted him to retreat. Only in this island of Luggnagg the appetite for living was not so eager, from the continual example of the struldbrugs before their eyes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He bore over his shoulder a great knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head of it, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with a quivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dashing his companion's brains out.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So moved was the young clerk by these mute appeals, that he came forth from the trees and crossed the meadow, uncertain what to do, and yet loth to hold back from one who might need his aid.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Nay, think again, Sir Claude,” said Sir Nigel gently; “for you have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely you will not hold back now when your master hath need of you.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)