Holborn Hill. To ride backwards up Holborn Hill, verb. phr. (old
colloquial).—To go to the gallows. [The way was thence to Tyburn,
criminals riding backwards.—Grose.]
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Urs. Up the heavy
hill—Knock. Of Holbourn, Ursula, mean’st thou so? for what, for
what, pretty Urse? Urs. For cutting halfpenny purses, or stealing
little penny dogs out o’ the Fair.
1659. Harry White’s Humour (Nares). Item, he loves to ride when he
is weary, yet at certaine times he holds it ominous to ride up
Holborne.
1695. Congreve, Love for Love, ii., 7. Sirrah, you’ll be hanged; I
shall live to see you go up Holborn hill.
Hold, verb. (old).—1. To bet; to wager. See Do you hold?
1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed.,
1875, iii., 7). I hold a groat ye will drink anon of this gear.
1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old
Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 216, and passim). I hold thee a groat I
shall patch thy coat.
1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, ii., 1. I’ll hold you a guinea you
don’t make her tell it you.
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 54. I’ll hold ye five Guineas to
four.
2. (venery) (or Hold it).—To be impregnated; to be got with child. [In
certain parts of Scotland, it is said, a farm servant stating that she
“disna haud” commands double wages.]
To hold on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apply oneself; to be
persistent: generally, to hold on like grim death.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 71. He recovered, and wisely
held on to for the future.
Hold up, verb. phr. (American and Australian).—1. To rob on the
highway; to bail or stick up (q.v.). Also as subs. = a highwayman or
road-agent (q.v.).
1888. Detroit Free Press, 8 Dec. One man held up six stage
passengers in Arizona the other day and robbed them of $2,000. Each
was armed, but it is customary to submit out there, and so up went
their hands.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 13 Oct. Mounted on a white horse, he
started on a land-prospecting tour and ran against a party of
hold-ups.
1892. Lippincott, Oct., p. 495. Would hold the train up until I had
finished.