Meaning & use
hold down the fort
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiominformal
To take care of things and keep an activity going while the usual person is away.
Grammar: Used without an object; the person or place being protected comes after 'for' or 'while'.
Patterns
- hold down the fort for someone
- hold down the fort while someone is away
- hold the fort
Can you hold down the fort for an hour while I go to the bank?
She held down the fort at the office while the manager was on vacation.
Don't worry about the shop; I'll hold down the fort until you get back.
Common combinations
- hold down the fort for someone
- I'll hold down the fort for you until Monday.
- hold down the fort while someone is away
- He held down the fort while his parents were traveling.
- hold the fort
- Just hold the fort for ten minutes and I'll be right back.
- leave someone to hold down the fort
- They left me to hold down the fort during the busy weekend.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mind the store
- Very close in meaning, but more common in American business talk and slightly more formal.
- keep things going
- A plain general phrase; it does not suggest that you are standing in for someone else.
Commonly confused: hold down the fort or hold the fort?
hold down the fort vs hold the fort
This shorter form means the same thing and is equally common, especially in British English.
Practice
A colleague is going out and says, 'Could you hold down the fort while I'm at lunch?' What does she want you to do?
Choose one answer.
The idiom means to keep things running while someone is away. The literal words about a fort are not meant, so options 1 and 4 are wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hold down the fort”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.