hold off

1. 1.

   resist and fight to a standoff

   “Dallas had enough of a lead to hold the Broncos off”

   Broaderresist
2. 2.

   wait before acting

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

   Synonymswaithold back

   Broaderact

   Narrowerhold outdelay

Questions about hold off

What does hold off mean?

hold off means "resist and fight to a standoff". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for hold off?

Close synonyms include wait, hold back. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hold off a common word?

hold off is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.