hold off phrasal verb ( see also ↑ hold )
1 . to delay doing something:
Buyers have been holding off until the price falls.
hold off (on) doing something
Hold off making your decision until Monday.
2 . hold somebody ↔ off
a) to prevent someone who is trying to attack or defeat you from succeeding:
Not even a gun could hold him off forever.
b) to prevent someone from coming towards you or succeeding in speaking to you:
There’s already a crowd of reporters outside – I’ll try to hold them off for a while.
3 . if rain or bad weather holds off, it does not start, although it looked as if it would:
The rain held off until after the game.