- Home
- Idioms
- hold out on
hold out on
hold (something) out on (someone or something)
to keep news or something of value from someone or a group. What's going on? Are you holding something out on me? Don't hold out on the city council. They have ways of finding out everything.
hold out on somebody
to refuse to give help or information to someone I discovered that she had been holding out on me all these years, not telling me the secret ingredient in her pies.
hold out on (someone)
To withhold something from: Don't hold out on me; start telling the truth.