hold up — delay
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
To cause someone or something to be late or to slow down.
Say it like a native
Textbook I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the delay.
Native Sorry to hold you up.
'Hold up' is the everyday verb for delaying someone. The formal apology is corporate.
Pattern: hold (someone/something) up
In use
- Sorry I'm late—the traffic really held me up this morning.daily life
- If public transport is unreliable, it can hold up commuters and make them late for work or school.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ Sorry, I don't want to hold up you.
✓ Sorry, I don't want to hold you up.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle — 'hold you up', not 'hold up you'.
Common collocations
hold up + person/thing— traffic, the queue, you, the project
Don't confuse it
'Hold up' (delay) is different from 'hold on', which means to wait.
Related
- hold up (support) — Another meaning of 'hold up' is 'support'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.