WITHHOLDING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does withholding mean? 

• WITHHOLDING (noun)
  The noun WITHHOLDING has 3 senses:

1. the act of deducting from an employee's salary

2. income tax withheld from employees' wages and paid directly to the government by the employer

3. the act of holding back or keeping within your possession or control

  Familiarity information: WITHHOLDING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WITHHOLDING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of deducting from an employee's salary

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("withholding" is a kind of...):

deduction; subtraction (the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole))

Domain category:

revenue enhancement; tax; taxation (charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government)

Derivation:

withhold (retain and refrain from disbursing; of payments)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Income tax withheld from employees' wages and paid directly to the government by the employer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

withholding; withholding tax

Hypernyms ("withholding" is a kind of...):

income tax (a personal tax levied on annual income)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "withholding"):

pay as you earn; PAYE (the British system of withholding tax)

Derivation:

withhold (retain and refrain from disbursing; of payments)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of holding back or keeping within your possession or control

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

there were allegations of the withholding of evidence

Hypernyms ("withholding" is a kind of...):

holding; keeping; retention (the act of retaining something)

Derivation:

withhold (hold back; refuse to hand over or share)

 Context examples 

“But you wrong me by withholding it,” I objected.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His primacy was savage, and savagely he ruled, administering justice with a club, punishing transgression with the pain of a blow, and rewarding merit, not by kindness, but by withholding a blow.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Sir Walter, on being applied to, without actually withholding his consent, or saying it should never be, gave it all the negative of great astonishment, great coldness, great silence, and a professed resolution of doing nothing for his daughter.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Towards the twilight I went out by myself, musing on what I ought to do, and whether I was justified in withholding from Agnes, any longer, what Uriah Heep had told me in London; for that began to trouble me again, very much.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Having described the genesis of their journey, and paid a handsome tribute to his friend Professor Challenger, coupled with an apology for the incredulity with which his assertions, now fully vindicated, had been received, he gave the actual course of their journey, carefully withholding such information as would aid the public in any attempt to locate this remarkable plateau.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)