"hold one's fire" meaning in English

See hold one's fire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: en-au-hold your fire.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} hold one's fire
  1. Do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile.
    Sense id: en-hold_one's_fire-en-phrase-lYTYra5p
  2. (colloquial, idiomatic) Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet. Tags: colloquial, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-hold_one's_fire-en-phrase-ImONBMfE Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English sentences, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 24 70 6 Disambiguation of English sentences: 17 59 24 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 20 73 7 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 18 78 4

Verb

Audio: en-au-hold your fire.ogg Forms: holds one's fire [present, singular, third-person], holding one's fire [participle, present], held one's fire [participle, past], held one's fire [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|hold<,,held> one's fire}} hold one's fire (third-person singular simple present holds one's fire, present participle holding one's fire, simple past and past participle held one's fire)
  1. (intransitive) To refrain from criticism. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-hold_one's_fire-en-verb-anz1yPpg

Inflected forms

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  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "hold one's fire",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
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        "Do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile."
      ],
      "id": "en-hold_one's_fire-en-phrase-lYTYra5p",
      "links": [
        [
          "weapon",
          "weapon"
        ],
        [
          "gunpowder",
          "gunpowder"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "24 70 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 59 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 73 7",
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          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 78 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hold your fire and let me explain.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet."
      ],
      "id": "en-hold_one's_fire-en-phrase-ImONBMfE",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, idiomatic) Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet."
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "idiomatic"
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    {
      "word": "return fire"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "holds one's fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "holding one's fire",
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    {
      "form": "held one's fire",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "form": "held one's fire",
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "To refrain from criticism."
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      "id": "en-hold_one's_fire-en-verb-anz1yPpg",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To refrain from criticism."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
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    "English multiword terms",
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    "English sentences",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "Do not discharge a weapon. Used originally for weapons needing a spark or lighting of a fuse to ignite gunpowder; now sometimes used to mean any weapon launching a projectile."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "weapon",
          "weapon"
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          "gunpowder"
        ]
      ]
    },
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        "English idioms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hold your fire and let me explain.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet."
      ],
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        "(colloquial, idiomatic) Wait, don't retaliate, calm down, be quiet."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
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      "word": "return fire"
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    "English phrases",
    "English sentences",
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    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "holds one's fire",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "holding one's fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "held one's fire",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "held one's fire",
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      },
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To refrain from criticism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "refrain",
          "refrain"
        ],
        [
          "criticism",
          "criticism"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To refrain from criticism."
      ],
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        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
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Download raw JSONL data for hold one's fire meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.