hold-up n.
1. (orig. US) an armed robbery.
![]() | in Army Letters from An Officer’s Wife (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. | |
![]() | Harper’s Mag. Apr. 695/2: Darkness [...] into which one ventured with grave apprehensions lest a ‘hold-up’ might be in waiting for him [DA]. | |
![]() | Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 20 Aug. 5/2: The notorious train robbers (...] were accused of the Grants holdup on the Santa Fe Pacific and the Santa Fe holdup at Belen. | |
![]() | World of Graft 18: Take a walk some night way out on the south side where a lot of hold-ups have come off, and see how many coppers you’ll find. | |
![]() | From Coast to Coast with Jack London 57: He had personally passed through a number of holdups by hoboes who [...] had relieved him of his six-shooters. | |
![]() | Hobo 23: A holdup has been committed in town the night before and they intend to prevent any more from being committed, ‘So you fellers have to leave’. | |
![]() | We Who Are About to Die 194: The kid had come around and propositioned Mike to stage the hold-up. | |
![]() | Dundee Courier 10 May 2/3: A man who was detained [...] in connection with an alleged armed hold-up. | |
![]() | Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
![]() | Swell-Looking Babe 18: I don’t believe there’s ever been a successful hold-up of a major hotel. | |
![]() | Addict in the Street (1966) 114: They used to give people holdups. | |
![]() | Deadly Piece 149: He was shot in a cheap holdup in Brownsville. | |
![]() | Indep. 26 July 12: Street brawls, drunkeness, bus hold-ups, rapes, robbery. |
2. (orig. US, also hold-up artist, hold-up man) an armed robber.
![]() | Detroit Free Press 13 Oct. n.p.: Mounted on a white horse, he started on a land-prospecting tour and ran against a party of hold-ups [F&H]. | |
![]() | Chieftain (Socorro, NM) 26 Mar. 1/4: A party of four or five rustlers or holdups passed through this country [...] stealing four horses . | |
![]() | Brand Blotters (1912) 72: How many of the hold-ups were there? | |
![]() | Bar-20 Days 143: Why, he’s a two-laigged hold-up! [...] He’s the biggest thief I ever knowed. | |
![]() | Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 33: The police were inquiring after Benny the Bear, a daylight holdup man. | ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in|
![]() | Western Times 2 Nov. 3/1: he desired to rid himself of his wife, and hired a man [...] to play the part of ‘hold-up man’. | |
![]() | Chicago May (1929) 256: The fake hold-up man may beat the gent. | |
![]() | Low Company 127: I don’t like to do with hold-up men, with gangsters. | |
![]() | Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/4: Shootings among the ‘hold-up’ artists were banned . | |
![]() | Rendezvous with Fear 29: He was a revolutionary, not a bandit or a hold-up man. | |
![]() | Dundee Courier 27 Nov. 2/3: [headline] Woman struck hold-up man. | |
![]() | Big Rumble 117: Papa acted very reserved when the detectives came to question him about the hold-up man. |
3. (US) an instance of extortion; lit. or fig.; also attrib.
![]() | Sat. Eve. Post 27 Aug. 6/3: Our house [...] cost twenty-five thousand dollars, exclusive of the plumber’s little hold-up and the Oriental rugs [DA]. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 23 July 26/4: I have since found out that private banks charge 6d. for remitting £25 or under. But 1s. for £5 or under – well, it’s a fair hold-up. | |
![]() | Hand-made Fables 162: The Members of the cruel Hold-Up Gang knew that Ebeneezer was sincere. | |
![]() | Silver Eagle 107: Molina [...] counted out seventy-five one thousand dollar bills. ‘ [...] I’ll pay your price providing it ain’t a holdup’. | |
![]() | (con. early 1930s) Harlem Glory (1990) 22: Most people borrowed money with no intention of paying it back; it was just a respectable holdup. | |
![]() | USA Confidential 15: This does not mean every holdup, heisting or second-story job is acted and voted on by a select committee. |