holding pattern

1. 1.

   a state of inaction with no progress and no change

   “you should go into a holding pattern until he gets over his disappointment”

   Broaderinaction
2. 2.

   the flight path (usually circular) maintained by an aircraft that is awaiting permission to land

   Broaderair lane

Questions about holding pattern

What does holding pattern mean?

holding pattern means "a state of inaction with no progress and no change". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is holding pattern a common word?

holding pattern is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.