holdup
Americannoun
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holdups
plural
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a forcible stopping and robbing of a person.
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a stop or delay in the progress of something.
There was a holdup in the construction of the bridge.
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an instance of being charged excessively.
Usage
What does holdup mean? A holdup is a delay or something that causes a delay. It’s frequently used in the phrase What’s the holdup?—meaning “What’s the cause of the delay?”Holdup can also refer to a kind of robbery, typically in which the robber takes a person’s money by stopping them and threatening them with a weapon, especially a gun. In this sense, a holdup is also called a stickup. In both cases, the word is sometimes spelled hold-up. The phrase hold up can be used as a verb meaning to delay, to cause a delay, or to rob someone in a holdup. (It also has several other meanings.)Example: I asked him what the holdup was, and he told me that he was waiting for the designer to deliver the images.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of holdup
1830–40, noun use of verb phrase hold up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But every year, thousands of refunds are held up, and the IRS isn’t required to process them within a certain period or provide information to taxpayers on what is responsible for the holdup.
From Barron's ● Mar. 28, 2026
One holdup, charging company executives say, is the cars themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
“He didn’t know what the holdup was in getting back to them on which university could be sued.”
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2025
Deliveries are also delayed due to a holdup in supplies of General Electric's F-404 engines for the jets.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2025
Werfel hopped up like a toad to see what the holdup was.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
Earlier this month, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted 10 Indian nationals for allegedly staging convenience-store holdups in Massachusetts and elsewhere to secure U visas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
But he also acknowledged such holdups arise because new wind and solar farms will need more transmission lines to carry their output.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2025
However, she adds, no serious holdups are expected.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2023
Among other things, he cites bureaucratic inconsistencies between the federal government and Navajo jurisdictions and holdups on environmental studies that determine how many animals can be kept on any given area of land.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2023
Now what the everlasting––” He meant what salutary jolt he could invent, barring holdups, but in the same breath he meant also a most startling scene which revealed itself as he turned the corner.
From The Missourian by Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
