I've got to get to work now. Why are you holding me up?
What is holding up traffic?
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Herds of wandering reindeer are frequently seen, and may even hold up the train while they cross the unfenced line to reach their feeding grounds.1958 December 23, M. D. Greville and H. A. Vallance, “Sweden's Inland Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 829:
It worked to perfection. Ferrari's decision not to stop on the next lap simply made life easier, especially when Alonso was held up by Marussia's Charles Pic during that period - for which the Frenchman earned a drive-through penalty.2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport:
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Idiomatic To detain by threatening, usually with a weapon, in order to commit robbery.
The guy tried to hold up a bank.
"Down, Dom!" he cried, "throw yourself down! Break in, Guido. Break in the door. We are held up!"1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:
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To support or lift.
Hold up the table while I slide this underneath.
In order to accommodate the new platform 4 and the reversibly signalled slow line, a deep cutting had to be cut back and held up in places with a concrete retaining wall.1962 June, David Walters, “The new station and layout at Coventry”, in Modern Railways, page 405:
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Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
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Figuratively To highlight, as if lifting up for display.
His lectures held up Napoleon as an example of the phenomenon.
held up for public ridicule
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Idiomatic To fulfil or complete one's part of an agreement.
I don't think he's holding up his end of the bargain.
› To persist.
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Idiomatic To withstand; to stand up to; to survive.
hold up to scrutiny
hold up to heavy use
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The now infamous '108 woodlands' figure published by the Woodlands Trust, and later used by others to infer that HS2 would destroy 108 woodlands, does not hold up to scrutiny.2023 August 23, Chris Howe, “Green screen: HS2's route through the shires”, in RAIL, number 990, page 34:
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To keep up; not to fall behind; not to lose ground.
For what will the World say; Why could not he hold up? What made him come on so heavily, but that he wanted either Management or Metal1697, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects:
The crossing caused serious congestion with long traffic hold-ups, and had been a bone of contention between the local authorities and the railway for over eighty years. It was controlled from Fletton Road Junction Signalbox (removed at the same time) and, until a wheel was installed in 1920, required two gatemen on each turn of duty.1959 April 23, C. R. Clinker and R. A. Dane, “The Railways of Peterborough”, in Railway Magazine, page 230:
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The curse has been Spanish ineptitude feeding Gibraltarian intransigence. Border hold-ups are counterproductive to winning hearts and minds, as were blundering Argentinian landings on the outer Falklands.2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, “Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2021:
They didn't get shot to death in hold-ups, strangled to death in rapes, stabbed to death in saloons, bludgeoned to death with axes by parents or children or die summarily by some other act of God.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:
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Bridge, Games The holding back of a card that could win a trick in order to use it later.
This was another hand on which a holdup caused declarer to lose control and to go down in a sensational way: […]1974, Terence Reese, Master Play in Contract Bridge, page 75:
In a holdup, a player delays taking a trick until opponents' entries are reduced.2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, The Bridge Game:
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In plural Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.
And to the left is a portable gamma counter that tells us the holdup of plutonium recovery facilities.1978, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Intelligence and Military Application of Nuclear Energy Subcommittee, Hearings on H.R. 11036 (H.R. 11686) (page 361)
During process operations and temporary shutdown, the holdup within the facility is also known as the in-process inventory.1989, Energy Research Abstracts, page 2046: