hold one's horses

English

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (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)

(idiomatic) To be patient; to 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, "Force is last resort in Iranian crisis," forbes.com/Thomson Financial News, 17 Sep. (retrieved 5 Oct. 2008):
  "I would ask everybody to hold their horses until we go through the process," ElBaradei said.

Synonyms

hold one's water; See also Thesaurus:wait

Translations

idiomatic: to be patient

Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Czech: krotit se, držet se na uzdě
Danish: klappe hesten, spise brød til
Finnish: pysyä housuissaan (fi) (literally "to stay in one's trousers")
French: minute, papillon (literally “just a minute, butterfly”)
Icelandic: róa sig, bíða (is), stilla sig
Norwegian:
Bokmål: ta det med ro, avvente (no)
Russian: придержи́ коне́й (priderží konéj), попридержи́ коне́й (popriderží konéj)
Portuguese: aguentar os cavalos (literally “to hold the horses”)
Spanish: apaciguar sus aguas (literally “to calm one's waters”)