How to Use hold off in a Sentence

hold off

verb
  • The rain held off, the fights were good and vibes were high.
    — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 20 June 2026
  • The team managed to hold off a late surge.
    — Michael Lewis, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026
  • The demons are held off; the planet is saved.
    — Yvonne Kim, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Fingers crossed the rain holds off!
    — R29 Team, Refinery29, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Welch and the defense held off the Cougars.
    — Tom Mulherin, Boston Herald, 26 Feb. 2026
  • The challenge is knowing what to hold off on.
    — Rosie Marder, Travel + Leisure, 7 Mar. 2026
  • If the soil is moist, hold off on watering.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 10 Feb. 2026
  • And local soccer fans may want to hold off on the chants.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 May 2026
  • If the soil is still moist, hold off on watering.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 30 Sep. 2025
  • That may or may not be enough to hold off the Dodgers the rest of this month.
    — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Sep. 2021
  • Dom has to hold off a couple dozen henchmen with his bare hands.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 22 June 2021
  • Or are savers better off holding off?
    — Matt Richardson, CBS News, 20 Mar. 2026
  • If a plant's soil feels wet to the touch, hold off watering for now.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Country Living, 26 May 2022
  • The council discussed one, but held off.
    — Victoria Le, Oc Register, 6 Feb. 2026
  • Is there a reason Democrats should hold off on the champagne?
    — David Faris, The Week, 18 May 2022
  • Showers are likely to hold off until evening and should be on the light side.
    — David Streit, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2023
  • So hold off on those out-of-season heirloom tomatoes.
    — Carolynn Carreño, Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2026
  • The metro's next best chance of rain holds off until late Wednesday.
    — Chris Shaffer, CBS News, 28 May 2026
  • So, builders are projected to hold off on new building projects.
    — Terri Williams, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • In others, leaders held off on changes, for the moment.
    — Ryan Carter, Daily News, 19 Mar. 2026
  • For a while, Minnesota held off.
    — Alec Lewis, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Rain chances will hold off until the afternoon.
    — Newsroom Meteorologist, Austin American Statesman, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Those flakes should hold off until after midnight.
    — CBS News, 29 Dec. 2025
  • If the soil still appears quite moist, hold off on watering for a few more days and check again.
    — Alexandra Jones, The Spruce, 21 Jan. 2026
  • But the congressman had to hold off the fox with an umbrella.
    — Fox News, 9 Apr. 2022
  • For now, Wall Street has held off on doubling down on its concerns.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Schlepp asked the judge to hold off on appointing a receiver for a few weeks.
    — Justin Wingerter, Denver Post, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Jokic had a five-point stretch to hold off Minnesota.
    — CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026
  • Hertz and his caretakers held off the flames as the fire licked the edge of his property.
    — Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, 13 Feb. 2025
  • China picked up a bronze medal in the event, holding off the Netherlands.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 17 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hold off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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