hold off

phrasal verbphr v

a) WAITto delay doing something 拖延，推迟

Buyers have been holding off until the price falls.

买家们一直按兵不动，等待价格下跌。

hold off (on) doing something

Hold off making your decision until Monday.

等到星期一再作决定吧。

b) hold somebody ↔ offDEFEND

i. to prevent someone who is trying to attack or defeat you from succeeding 对抗某人，抵挡住某人

Not even a gun could hold him off forever.

即使用枪也不能永远挡住他。

ii. to prevent someone from coming towards you or succeeding in speaking to you 阻止某人靠近；阻止某人和你谈话

There’s already a crowd of reporters outside – I’ll try to hold them off for a while.

外面已经有一群记者了——我会想法挡住他们一会儿。

c) DNif rain or bad weather holds off, it does not start, although it looked as if it would 〔雨、雪等〕延缓，迟迟不来

The rain held off until after the game.

这场雨直到比赛结束才开始下。

Examples from the Corpus

hold off• At that point our troops were too weak to hold them off.• The bunkers were built on the cliffs to hold off the enemy's landing forces.

hold off (on) doing something• Businesses are holding off on hiring new employees.• And while San Francisco Tomorrow has come out against the ballpark, other major environmental organizations have so far held off.• By holding off on both at least until next year, Clerides has created some diplomatic breathing space.• DiGenova said Starr may ask the jurors to hold off or limit their questioning.• For some of those years I had thought it might hold off the crack-up.• He had to keep dazzling the crowds to hold off his detractors.• I won't have to understand what has occurred if I hold off from consciously realizing that it has happened.• If Electronics had not held off its creditors, it would have collapsed, bringing Magnetics down with it.• Umbrellas could be made of oiled cloth, so that they did incidentally hold off the rain.

hold offChinese

hold off