Meaning & use
hold your horses
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiom
Used to tell someone to slow down, wait or stop acting hastily before they decide something.
Grammar: Mostly an imperative: hold your horses. It can be reported: she told him to hold his horses.
Patterns
- hold your horses
- tell someone to hold their horses
Hold your horses, we haven't decided on a price yet.
Hold your horses! The cake isn't cool enough to cut.
Tell him to hold his horses until the contract is signed.
Word forms
| third person singular | holds your horses |
|---|---|
| past tense | held your horses |
| -ing form | holding your horses |
Common combinations
- hold your horses
- Hold your horses, I need a minute to think.
- told him to hold his horses
- She told him to hold his horses.
- now hold your horses
- Now hold your horses, that's not what I meant.
- hold your horses for a moment
- Hold your horses for a moment while I check.
Synonyms and how they differ
- slow down
- Slow down is plain and applies to speed or pace, while hold your horses is a playful warning against rushing a decision.
- not so fast
- Not so fast is a sharper interruption, often used to challenge a claim.
- wait a minute
- Wait a minute is neutral and polite, whereas hold your horses adds humor.
- calm down
- Calm down is about emotion, not just haste.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: hold your horses or hold your tongue?
hold your horses vs hold your tongue
Hold your tongue means to stay silent, while hold your horses means to slow down.
Practice
A friend wants to buy a car after one test drive. You say, '___, let's compare prices first.'
Choose one answer.
Hold your horses asks someone to slow down before deciding. The other idioms have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hold your horses”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.