| 释义 |
ˈhold-up orig. U.S. slang.
[See hold v. 44 e.]
1. a. One who robs by ‘holding up’ a traveller, train, etc.: see hold v. 44 e. b. An instance of ‘holding up’; a robbery committed in this manner.
1878F. M. A. Roe Army Lett. (1909) 206 The driver is their only protector, and the stage route is through miles and miles of wild forest, and in between huge boulders where a ‘hold-up’ could be so easily accomplished. 1885Harper's Mag. Apr. 695/2 Darkness..into which one ventured with grave apprehensions lest a ‘hold-up’ might be in waiting for him. 1888in Farmer Dict. Amer., [He] was mortally shot by hold-ups, Tuesday night. 1896Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 29 Dec. 2/1 The prisoner confessed to a hold-up. 1897Ibid. 16 Jan. 2/5 We are tired of reading in our papers nothing but hold-ups and killings. 1904Daily Chron. 23 Dec. 4/5 There are epidemics of robberies, murders and hold-ups in all the large cities. 1928Daily Express 15 June 7/5 The ‘hold-up’ of a steamer crowded with holiday-makers on Lake Windermere. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 2/2 Police said they had recovered $3,991 from yesterday's holdup.
c. A stoppage or check in the passage or progress of a person or thing; a temporary stoppage of traffic; a cessation, stop. orig. U.S.
1837Knickerbocker X. 439 The wheels of the coach are shod with the preparation of iron slippers, which are essential to a hold-up. 1882in G. H. Putnam Mem. Publisher (1915) 289 We don't have hold-ups [sc. strikes] in Leadville. 1904N.Y. Tribune 15 May 2 A vote of thanks to the Tribune for its efforts to end the hold-up of the Port Chester Railroad's application for a permit to cross streets in the Bronx. 1907Putnam's Monthly July 482/1 He cursed the luck of the hold-up. 1913A. B. Emerson R. Fielding at Snow Camp 154 We got to sit down and wait for a hold-up [of the storm]. 1918‘Q’ Foe-Farrell vii. 125 There was a hold-up as we [in a taxi] neared the bridge. 1928Daily Express 14 July 2/1 There had been two or three hold-ups with the points prior to my arrival at 4.50 p.m. 1964Ann. Reg. 1963 224 In connexion with the various hold-ups of Allied military convoys on the autobahn..it was recalled that the D.D.R. had only temporarily handed over control of military traffic to the Soviet military. 1973‘H. Carmichael’ Too Late for Tears xi. 131, I nearly didn't get here. Ran into a traffic hold-up and was stuck. 1973E. Lemarchand Let or Hindrance viii. 93 The hold-up over the Fortnight film while Paul King finished editing the last part.
d. An instance of extortion. Chiefly U.S.
1908L. Mitchell New York Idea i. 15 The people insisted on electing a desperado to the presidential office—they must take the hold-up that follows. 1910Sat. Even. Post 27 Aug. 6/3 Our house..cost twenty-five thousand dollars, exclusive of the plumber's little hold-up and the Oriental rugs. 1939J. Mulgan Man Alone i. 14 It never was farming land. It's a hold-up, and God help the poor bastards who have to take it at that price.
e. Bridge. (See quot. 1959.) Cf. hold v. 44 d.
1945Phillips & Reese How to play Bridge iii. 101 The principal device available to the declarer to prevent the establishment of an opponent's long suit is hold-up play. 1959Reese & Dormer Bridge Player's Dict. 113 Hold-up play. A player is said to hold up when for tactical reasons he declines to play a winning card. Usually, his object is to destroy communication between the enemy hands, but there can be other and more subtle reasons for the hold-up. 1962Listener 22 Mar. 534/1 This uncommon hold-up play will prevent the defence from bringing in the suit unless North has two entries.
f. (See quot.)
1945H. D. Smyth Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes ix. 94 The total amount of material tied up in a separation plant is called a ‘hold-up’. The hold-up may be very large in a plant consisting of many stages.
2. attrib. = Engaged in, involving, or characterized by forcible stopping and robbing of a person.
1881E. W. Nye B. Nye & Boomerang 192, I did give him the grand bounce, and now he hath joined a hold-up outfit on the overland stage route. 1899Chicago Tribune 16 Jan., The holdup gang who shot and killed policeman..Wallner. 1930[see bail v.3 3]. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Feb. 93/3 Unfortunately the stranger is not only a ‘goy’ and a drifter but he has been worse—a hold-up man, one of whose victims was once the grocer himself. |