10 HOLD Phrasal Verbs: hold up, hold to, hold out...

Hi again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is, again, one of

your favourites, phrasal verbs; everybody's favourites because they're so much fun and

easy to understand. Today we're going to look at phrasal verbs with "hold". Okay? We have

10 of them. And again, what is a phrasal verb? Just to review. It is a verb, in this case:

"hold", plus a preposition, when put together, have completely different meanings than the

two words by themselves. So, let's start.

We have: "hold on". Now, many of you might hear this one when you call somebody on the

phone and you say: -"Hi, may I speak with Joe?" -"Oh, yeah, I'll get him. Hold on."

What does "hold on" mean? Means wait. "Hold on" also means grab. So if you're on the bus

and you see like it's a bit shaky, you hold on to the bar so you don't fall. "Hold on",

wait; "hold on", grab.

Next, we have: "hold off". Now, "hold off" can also mean wait. But whereas "hold on"

means I'm telling you to wait, usually "hold off" means you're waiting for something else

to finish. Right? So I will hold off giving you the quiz until I finish explaining everything.

It's a little bit like postpone as well. It can also means... It could also mean - sorry

- delay. So, we will hold off the election until everybody has a chance to find out who

the candidates are. Okay? So we will hold off, we will postpone it or delay it.

"Hold up". "Hold up" also means delay, to delay something. So the party was held up

because not enough people came because of the bad weather. Okay? Or the concert was

held up because the singer was a little bit sick, couldn't make it on to the stage for

whatever reason. A completely different meaning of "hold up" is: "Stick 'em up. This is a

hold up." A robbery. Okay? But what you have to remember is this could also be a noun,

a one-word noun. In that case, it's a robbery. The bank robbers walked into the bank and

held up the tellers to get their money.

"Hold out". "Hold out" also means wait, but in a very different context. If you're holding

out for something better, it means you're waiting for a better offer, or a better situation,

or anything better to come along. So, for example: in sports, you will hear this word

often. A professional hockey player is coming to the end of his... coming to the end of

his contract. The team wants to sign him to a new contract, but he's not. He's not signing.

Why? He wants more money. They say: "Okay. We're not going to give you more money". He'll

say: "Okay, I'll wait". So he is holding out for a better offer. This could also be a noun,

a "holdout". We would say the person is a holdout for a better contract.

"Hold over". "Hold over" also means to delay. The exhibition was held over until next week

because of technical difficulties. The lights weren't working or there was a problem with

the electricity, so the exhibition was held over to the next week.

"Hold against". Also, two meanings. I can hold the pen against my chest. I could hold

the baby against my heart, for example. But "hold against" - completely different meaning

- means to have a grudge. Now, I'm not sure if you guys know what "grudge" means. A grudge

means when you... When somebody did something bad to you and you just can't forgive them.

You will always remember that bad thing they did and you will always hold it against them.

Every time they want to speak to you, you're... In the back of your mind is that bad thing

they did. You're always remembering; you're never forgetting, you're never forgiving.

So you hold it against them all the time. They want to help you, you don't trust them.

You hold it against them that they did something bad to you in the past.

"Hold onto", again two meanings. Similar to "hold on", hold on to something, "hold onto"

your seats, we're going to go very fast. So when you go to a movie, for example, say:

"Hold onto your seats, this is going to be an exciting ride", or an exciting movie, or

whatever. "Hold onto" also means keep. Hold onto your job, basically. Don't lose your

job; hold onto it. Hold onto your friends. Never lose your friends; not a good idea.

"Hold back". "Hold back" is to restrain someone. It means keep them back from going forward

or to hold back somebody who's very angry, for example. Somebody made me very angry,

I want to go fight... I'm not a very violent person, but, you know, it happens. I'm about

to go fight, but then all my friends hold me back and don't let me go forward to do

anything. "Hold back" is... Another way to think of it is in school. If a... If a child

or a student does very badly, the school will hold him or her back for a year; they will

have to do the year over again. They've been held back.

"Hold down". "Hold down" is like, for... Like, for example, physically hold something down.

Like if I want to fight and I'm on the ground, my friends will hold me down; they won't let

me stand back up to fight. "Hold down" also, when you're talking about food. Okay? So,

I ate a lot of pizza and then got on a rollercoaster, like going up and down, and I just couldn't

hold down my food; it all came up and out. I couldn't hold it down. We also say "hold

down" about a job. A person who can hold down a job will have a successful life because

he or she has money. So hold down a job means keep a job, be able to keep a job.

And last one: "hold to". Now, this is a little bit particular situations. Right? I'm going

to hold you to your promise, means I'm going to make you keep your promise. So, you say:

"Okay, I can't talk to you right now, but let's meet next week for a coffee". Say: "Okay,

I'm going to hold you to that". It means: next week I'm going to call you and you're

going to meet me for a coffee. Okay?

So there you go again. "Hold" with 10 different prepositions. Lots of different meanings and

uses. But again, you need to practice this. Go to www.engvid.com. There's a quiz there

you can practice these phrasal verbs with. And come visit us again soon. Bye.