hold-ups
- 1Plural of hold-up.
Supply hold-ups pushed the opening of the new store back by a month.
The gang carried out a string of armed hold-ups along the highway.
Note
The s goes on the end of the whole compound, after up, and the hyphen stays, while the verb behind it is two separate words: things hold you up, and you sit through the hold-ups. Most often it counts delays or armed robberies, and in Nigerian English it also counts traffic jams, the cars stuck or crawling along the road.
- 2Women's stockings designed to stay up on their own, without a garter belt.
She wore lace-topped hold-ups under her dress for the wedding.
A three-pack of hold-ups is cheaper at the chemist than at the department store.
Note
This is an informal British name, and it is usually plural, like tights: a pair of hold-ups, a three-pack of hold-ups. The name says what the stockings do on their own. In British English the garter belt they replace is called suspenders, so the phrase worn without suspenders can puzzle an American reader, for whom suspenders hold up trousers.
hold-ups is a form of hold up
hold up, noun: A delay, or a period spent waiting. Full entry
- Forms
- hold uphold-ups plural
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