Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hold-up n.

[hold up v.1 ]

1. (orig. US) an armed robbery.

[US] in F. Roe 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.
[US]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].
[US]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.
[US]J. Flynt 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.
[US]‘A-No. 1’ 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.
[US]N. Anderson 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’.
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 194: The kid had come around and propositioned Mike to stage the hold-up.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 10 May 2/3: A man who was detained [...] in connection with an alleged armed hold-up.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 18: I don’t believe there’s ever been a successful hold-up of a major hotel.
[US]Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 114: They used to give people holdups.
[US]P. Hamill Deadly Piece 149: He was shot in a cheap holdup in Brownsville.
[UK]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.

[US]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].
[US]Chieftain (Socorro, NM) 26 Mar. 1/4: A party of four or five rustlers or holdups passed through this country [...] stealing four horses .
[US]W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 72: How many of the hold-ups were there?
[US]C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 143: Why, he’s a two-laigged hold-up! [...] He’s the biggest thief I ever knowed.
[US]J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 33: The police were inquiring after Benny the Bear, a daylight holdup man.
[UK]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’.
[US]M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 256: The fake hold-up man may beat the gent.
[US]D. Fuchs Low Company 127: I don’t like to do with hold-up men, with gangsters.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/4: Shootings among the ‘hold-up’ artists were banned .
[US]N. Davis Rendezvous with Fear 29: He was a revolutionary, not a bandit or a hold-up man.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 27 Nov. 2/3: [headline] Woman struck hold-up man.
[US]E. De Roo 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.

[US]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].
[Aus]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.
[US]Ade Hand-made Fables 162: The Members of the cruel Hold-Up Gang knew that Ebeneezer was sincere.
[US]W.R. Burnett Silver Eagle 107: Molina [...] counted out seventy-five one thousand dollar bills. ‘ [...] I’ll pay your price providing it ain’t a holdup’.
[US](con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 22: Most people borrowed money with no intention of paying it back; it was just a respectable holdup.
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 15: This does not mean every holdup, heisting or second-story job is acted and voted on by a select committee.