Other forms: holdups
A holdup is a robbery carried out with a weapon. A bank holdup, the holdup lasted minutes, a holdup at gunpoint.
It is American and belongs to newspapers and films more than to police reports, which say armed robbery. As two words, a hold-up also means a delay — what is the holdup is the ordinary British use, and it has nothing to do with crime.
1nounholdupA robbery carried out with a weapon.
“Two masked men carried out a holdup at the petrol station last night.”
holdup is a robbery.
Deverbal from hold up.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA