hold one's horses

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

hold one's horses (third-person singular simple present holds one's horses, present participle holding one's horses, simple past and past participle held one's horses)

1. (idiomatic) To be patient; to wait.

   Synonyms: hold one's water; see also Thesaurus:wait

   • 1921, Booth Tarkington, chapter 24, in Alice Adams:

     "I'm going to tell you, ain't I?" he said, gruffly. "Just hold your horses a minute, please."

   • 2007 September 17, “Force is last resort in Iranian crisis”, in forbes.com/Thomson Financial News, retrieved 5 Oct. 2008:

     "I would ask everybody to hold their horses until we go through the process," ElBaradei said.

Usage notes

• Mostly used imperatively, as "hold your horses".

Translations

idiomatic: to be patient

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: krotit se, držet se na uzdě
• Danish: klappe hesten (da), spise brød til (da)
• Finnish: pysyä housuissaan (fi) (literally "to stay in one's trousers")
• French: minute, papillon (literally “just a minute, butterfly”), du calme
• Icelandic: róa sig, bíða (is), stilla sig
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ta det med ro, avvente (no)

• Polish: czekać (pl) impf (literally “to wait”), (czekaj) chwilę (literally “wait a moment”) (for "hold your horses")
• Portuguese: aguentar os cavalos (literally “to hold the horses”)
• Russian: придержи́ коне́й (priderží konéj), попридержи́ коне́й (popriderží konéj)
• Spanish: apaciguar sus aguas (literally “to calm one's waters”)

See also

• back that train up