A course of action designed to maintain the status quo under difficult circumstances.
the best we can hope for is an uneasy holding operation
Example sentencesExamples
- The barricade itself was purely a holding operation.
- There were holding operations under successive governments that were forced to make a concession here or there.
- The air campaign in the north-west area was more a holding operation and potential targets were more distant.
- It is intended to be an emergency holding operation.
- At first it was a holding operation, with roofs re-tiled and chimneys rebuilt.
- This year is much more about a holding operation, to start building things up again,’ he said.