hold one's horses

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: hōld' wŭnz' hôrsĭz
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: hold one's hors‧es

Verb

hold one's horses (third-person singular simple present holds one's horses, present participle holding one's horses, simple past held one's horses, past participle held one's horses or (archaic) holden one's horses)

  1. (idiomatic) To be patient; to wait.
    Synonyms: hold one's water; see also Thesaurus:wait
    • 1921, Booth Tarkington, chapter 24, in Alice Adams:
      "I'm going to tell you, ain't I?" he said, gruffly. "Just hold your horses a minute, please."
    • 2007 September 17, “Force is last resort in Iranian crisis”, in forbes.com/Thomson Financial News, retrieved 5 Oct. 2008:
      "I would ask everybody to hold their horses until we go through the process," ElBaradei said.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hold,‎ one's,‎ horses.

Usage notes

  • Mostly used imperatively, as "hold your horses".

Translations

See also

Further reading