What is "holding off"

Usage examples of "holding off".

He considered holding off until his golden jubilee, just three weeks away, but even that seemed rash at his age.

The key is careful control of the freezing profile, holding off freezing as long as possible, then triggering it all at once (a process known as seeding), and preventing the differential contraction of tissues that leads to cracking.

The President and I need to find a time when we can be confident the Manties won't be tempted into some sort of preemptive action, which means holding off for as long as we can to build up the most powerful deterrent possible.

However, with Gurd holding off the Guards downstairs and Makri stalling Casax by pretending she doesn't speak the language very well, there's no time for any of that.

Even if we succeed in holding off the Spanish, a large part of the city's populace is sure to die before it is over.

Ordinarily, these people would have no difficulty in holding off a score of bandits.

I suspect he's holding off because he doesn't know what he's dealing with.

According to several peasants he'd found and questioned, with Thalia's assistance, the northern villages had closed their gates and were holding off the marauding bands.

The air was raw and chill, but the iron-gray clouds were holding off on rain, for once.

His 20th Foot had more often than not been the rear guard in that retreat, holding off Soult and the French pursuers long enough to enable Sir John Moore’.

Honest Mox has been taking bets on the outcome of this election for weeks now, but I've been holding off till I get a chance to study the form in person.

Rap had no illusions of holding off a dragon if there was real gold in the neighborhood.

It's just the dust in here, he thought, but his lungs felt heavy, and he realized he'd been holding off the cough all day.