hold off
verb
held off;
holding off;
holds off
Definition of hold off
1
: to block from an objective : delay
2
: to defer action on : postpone
hold off a decision
3
: to fight to a standoff : withstand
: to defer or temporarily stop doing something
Examples of hold off in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
After taking what appeared to be a commanding 28-0 lead midway through the third quarter, University School held off a furious Hialeah comeback to survive with a 35-27 victory. — Steve Evans, sun-sentinel.com, "U-School, up 28-0, escapes resilient Hialeah 35-27," 31 Aug. 2019 Pearce led the restart and held off Lindeman for the victory. — Antioch Speedway, The Mercury News, "DeMartini is victorious in Winged 360 main event," 21 Aug. 2019 Unlike the telescope, humans can't see the glowing gamma rays — so hold off buying those moon glasses. — Lauren Kent, CNN, "Why the moon glows brighter than the sun in these new NASA images," 16 Aug. 2019 The Spartans swept Cypress Lakes, Spring and Tomball in pool play, then defeated Klein Cain in three sets and held off Katy 25-21, 26-24. — Jack Marrion, Houston Chronicle, "Mayde Creek volleyball continues momentum from 2018," 12 Aug. 2019 La Cañada fended off San Marino, 486 points to 439, to lift the league championship and convincingly held off Damien, 336 to 235, for the Division II title. — Vincent Nguyen, La Cañada Valley Sun, "Looking Back: La Cañada teams fueled off pressure for successful campaigns," 24 July 2019 The new Pads CEO in 2005 was Sandy Alderson, who like many new execs wanted to hire his own manager but held off because Bochy’s teams fared too well to fire him outright. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Column: Bruce Bochy, Padres tip caps to one another," 28 July 2019 Truex opened an 8-second advantage and held off a strong push by Busch to win by 1.861 seconds. — Greg Beacham, The Mercury News, "Truex wins Save Mart 350 for second straight year," 23 June 2019 Companies are mostly hesitating, limiting orders and holding off on investments in the hope that time will bring clarity. — Peter S. Goodman, New York Times, "Globalization Is Moving Past the U.S. and Its Vision of World Order," 19 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hold off.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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