hold back
— phrasal verb with hold uk/həʊld/us/hoʊld/verb held, held
to not do something, often because of fear or because you do not want to make a bad situation worse:
He held back, terrified of going into the dark room.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Avoiding action
- avoid
- avoid sth like the plague idiom
- avoidance
- bottle
- bottle out
- flinch
- flinch from sth/doing sth
- fudge
- get out of sth
- get-out clause
- insure
- shrink
- sit on your arse idiom
- skip out on sb/sth
- stand around
- stand by
- stand round
- steer
- welch
- welsh
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