hold down
Britishverb
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to restrain or control
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informal to manage to retain or keep possession of
to hold down two jobs at once
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Also, keep down . Limit, restrain, as in Please hold down the noise . [First half of 1500s] Also see keep down .
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Work at or discharge one's duties satisfactorily, as in He managed to hold down two jobs at the same time . [ Colloquial ; 1800s]
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.
And we spoke with a middle-aged woman with schizophrenia and panic disorder who lives with her brother’s family because she can’t hold down a job and fears being left alone in a nursing home.
From Salon • Apr. 29, 2026
The duo will hold down the fort from Times Square beginning at 5 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 29, 2025
When you are rushing around, trying to do everything for your children and hold down a demanding job, how are there enough hours in the day?
From BBC • Dec. 20, 2025
Plus, the Federal Reserve plans to buy hundreds of billions of short-term Treasury bonds annually, another move that would pump money into the financial system and hold down rates.
From Barron's • Dec. 18, 2025
There are bricks that hold down the corners of the tarps, and when we reach what is Dell's unit, I lift one.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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.
