intransitive verb
1. : to take refuge or shelter in a hole or cave or as if in one : seek protection
gone upstate to where her people were … figured on holing up with them for a while until she got over being afraid — R.F.Mirvish
holed up in caves until they were blasted out by tommy gun and dynamite — Newsweek
2. : to go into hiding
breaks jail and holes up in an isolated turkey ranch — Newsweek
badmen who holed up in badlands where others dared not venture — Ford Times
transitive verb
1.
a. : to place in or as if in a refuge, a shelter, or a hiding place
during the wartime absence of her husband … she was holed up with two small sons on a farm — New Yorker
b. : imprison
the gunman holed them up in the house for two days
2. : to hold up or delay especially for a long time
housing legislation is holed up in a Senate committee — Time