hold one's own

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

hold one's own (third-person singular simple present holds one's own, present participle holding one's own, simple past and past participle held one's own)

1. (idiomatic) To demonstrate oneself to be capable; to provide a respectable performance or worthy competition; to stick up for oneself.
   • 1877, R. D. Blackmore, chapter 6, in Erema:

     At any rate, he was like John Bull in one respect: he was sturdy and square, and fit to hold his own with any man.

   • 1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, chapter 2, in Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1904, →OCLC:

     At the receptions […] Antonia could hold her own in a discussion with two or three men at a time.

   • 1909, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in The Gem Collector:

     If it came to blows, the younger man could not hope to hold his own with the huge policeman.

   • 1941 May, “Notes and News: William Stroudley”, in Railway Magazine, page 234:

     In his view, this eminent locomotive engineer had very decided opinions of his own, and was not afraid of putting them into practice; but a weakness lay in the fact that there was no one on his staff in a position sufficiently strong to hold his own with Stroudley in argument.

   • 1986, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Top Gun (motion picture):

     Charlie: Are you a good pilot?
     Maverick: I can hold my own.

   • 2007 April 4, David Runk, “Competition Heats Up In Truck Market”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 4 November 2010, page E8:

     But Ford, and Chrysler continued to hold their own against the latest competition from the Japanese.

Synonyms

• stand tall

Translations

demonstrate oneself to be capable

• Afrikaans: nie skrik vir koue pampoen nie (af) (literally “not afraid of cold pumpkin”)
• Dutch: haar op zijn tanden hebben, zijn mannetje staan
• Finnish: pitää puolensa, pitää pintansa
• French: se montrer à la hauteur, se montrer capable, bien se défendre, tenir son rang (fr)
• Hungarian: megállja a helyét (hu)
• Icelandic: standa sig, halda sínum hlut, fara ekki halloka, hafa við einhverjum
• Polish: radzić sobie (pl) impf, poradzić sobie (pl)
• Russian: постоя́ть за себя́ (postojátʹ za sebjá)
• Spanish: mostrarse capaz, mostrarse a la altura, defenderse bien

See also

• hold up one's end