hold back

VERB
  1. wait before acting
    the scientists held off announcing their results until they repeated the experiment
  2. hold back; keep from being perceived by others
    She conceals her anger well
  3. prevent the action or expression of
    hold back your anger
    keep your cool
    she struggled to restrain her impatience at the delays
    keep your cool
  4. refrain from doing
    she forbore a snicker
  5. hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
    Check the growth of communism in South East Asia
    Turn back the tide of communism
    Arrest the downward trend
    Contain the rebel movement
  6. secure and keep for possible future use or application
    The landlord retained the security deposit
    I reserve the right to disagree
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How To Use hold back In A Sentence

  • Yet now he is dead, as dead as any ordinary pikeman who fought to hold back the Horde at the terminus of the Salmisti Bridge. Kingdoms of Light
  • All we ask is that you will hold back a tithe of the dues you pay to the abbey, and pay them instead to the town for murage and pavage. St. Peter's Fair
  • Secondly, do NOT think that you are going to hold back the ending because "I want the editor to be knocked endwise by the twist when s/he reads the book". Archive 2007-03-01
  • She closed her eyes tightly in a vain attempt to hold back the tears.
  • If one goes by the findings of behavioural studies, one would think twice before assigning baby-sitting functions for the telly or hold back from going ga ga over the toddler who lisps ad-lib.
  • The boss couldn' t hold back his anger any longer.
  • She was brushing her bright blue hair, putting two pigtails in her hair and a heart clip to hold back loose strands.
  • They built dykes and dam to hold back the rising flood waters.
  • They built dykes and dam to hold back the rising flood waters.
  • Hard, I found, to hold back a tear, and the goose pimples were not from the cold because it was a hot day, even in the quire. Simon Hoggart's week: Keeping ahead of the rhinos
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