hold off

verb — 2 senses

hold off

verb

1

Idiomatic To delay (someone or something) temporarily; to keep at bay.

Let's try to hold off the lawyers until we are ready for them.
The breakthrough came after 63 minutes as United’s unorthodox defence desperately tried to hold off a spell of sustained pressure.2014 November 2, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in guardian.co.uk:

2

Idiomatic To delay commencing (an action until some specified time or event has passed).

Hold off (on) the decision one more day so I can answer your question.
Hold off (on) baking until I get there.

Synonyms: postpone, put off
Derived terms: holdoff
Related terms: fend off, forhold, hold it, hold on, hold up

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.