Definition of "holdback"
holdback
noun
plural holdbacks
restraint; a device or part of a device that operates to restrain.
Quotations
In a furnace, the combination of an upwardly moving holdback and a downwardly moving dumping grate, of interconnected means for conjointly elevating said holdback and partially lowering said grate and then oscillating said grate without appreciably moving said holdback.
1914, Frank L. O. Wadsworth, “1103232: Furnace Grate”, in Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 399
The projection or loop, on the thill of a vehicle, to which a strap of the harness is attached, to hold back a carriage when going downhill, or in backing. Also, the strap or part of the harness so used.
Quotations
All those devices, which heretofore have been constructed, wherein a spring has been applied as part of the holdback, are subject to derangement, owing to the uncertain action of the spring employed, and a liability of the sprint to get out of order, thus detracting from their efficiency.
1861, John Davis, “No. 2551: Holdback for Carriages and other Vehicles”, in Letters patent - Volume 15
The object of my improvement is to obtain a draft and holdback attachment for hames which will be more durable and answer the purpose better than the old two-pronged staple or the circular clip.
1871, George J. Letchworth, “116725: Improvement in Hames”, in Specifications and Drawings of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office
A holdback for harness comprising a holdback strap and a socket or thimble consisting of a tapering leather body portion, a core tapered within the smaller end of the body portion, a tapered metal tip fitted to the core and receiving and engaging the adjacent end of the leather body portion and clamping the same on the core and fastening devices piercing the tip and the leather body portion and securing the same to the core.
1906, Hallock R. McDonald and Laruin R. Cope, “No 1o1803: Holdback for Harness”, in The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights
(accounting) Income that is set aside for eventualities such as customer returns, seasonal fluctuations, performance bonuses, unexpected costs, etc.
Quotations
The community Opportunity Bonus Fund incorporates a $250 million bonus pool, which would operate in the same manner as the original performance holdback.
1995, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies, Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, And Independen Agencies Appropriations for 1996
A portion of the money that is owed to someone which is not paid, but instead held as security, until the entire job or contract has been successfully completed.
Quotations
Holdback arrangements may be viewed as the reverse of kickbacks. There were nine retailers who reported a holdback requirement by finance companies.
1968, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the District of Columbia, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia
The proposed amendments to the regulation provided a procedure whereby the contractor's 10 percent holdback would be retained by the mortgagee to be paid into an escrow account, minus certain amounts, when the project has been substantially completed, as determined by HUD .
1977, Federal Register - Volume 42, Issues 1-5, page 763
In this situation, the courts reason that a holdback, which attempts to limit interim compensation allowances to the probable pro rata distribution that administrative expense claimants would receive at the end of the case, would likely prevent those administrative claimants not eligible for interim compensation from being unduly prejudiced by the interim allowances made to professionals.
1993, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts and Administrative Practice, Professional Fees in Bankruptcy, page 225
(car sales) The difference between a dealer's cost and the manufacturer's suggested retail price.
Quotations
The discount holdback is a part of the overall discount enjoyed by all dealers of Dodge vehicles, and it is inconspicuously noted on each invoice that petitioner receives. The purpose of the discount holdback is to place Dodge dealers in a better competititve position with their rivals by placing an artifically high floor on the invoice cost of new vehicles and making it appear that each vehicle costs the dealer more than it actually does.
1973, Reports of the United States Tax Court - Volume 60, page 886
A time period during which sales of a specific security or commodity cannot occur.
Quotations
Chang initially signed documents including a Purchase and Sale Agreement (Agreement) and Memorandum of Agreement (Memorandum) that provided for a 12-month holdback period for the $5 million, but instructed L.A. Pacific employee Eddy Chao that the holdback period must be extended to 60 months.
2012, California Advance Sheet February 2012
The underwriters undoubtedly require that Portfolio Comapany and each major holder of Portfolio Company restricted stock (and possibly each holder who was offered the opportunity to participate in the SEC registration, whether or not such holder actually does sell in the offering) agree not to sell additional Portfolio Company stock (including under SEC Rule 144) for a specified (and often lengthy, e.g., 180-day) period after the underwritten IPO (a "holdback period"). Indeed a registration rights agreement (often entered into years earlier when PE/VC and others made their original invesments in Portfolio Company stock (other than in the underwritten IPO) during any such underwriter's holdback period.
2020, Jack S. Levin, Donald E. Rocap, Structuring Venture Capital
A legal provision for restricting distributions to a trust beneficiary under certain conditions.
Quotations
If such a holdback provision applies to income being paid from a life estate power of appointment trust (or to the exercisability of the general power of appointment of such a trust), which has been created either to qualify for the marital deduction or the orphan's deduction, obviously such a holdback clause will disqualify the property in a trust for the deduction.
1980, The Annual Institute on Estate Planning, pages 5-19
Depending upon the degree of discretion the settler wants to grant to the trustee, these holdback provisions may either permit the trustee to suspend distributions in the trustee's discretion (a permissive holdback) or require the trustee to suspend distributions (a restrictive holdback).
2015, Wayne M. Gazur, Robert M. Phillips, Estate Planning: Principles and Problems
The withholding of permits to extract a natural resource.
Quotations
It is only a holdback for resource development, and with the increasing use by people of these resources, it is coming to a critical stage, Mr. Secretary, it doesn't seem to me that we are going to be able to hold back too much longer.
1968, United States. Congress. House Committee on Appropriations, Hearings - Volume 9, page 41
You have the question of the supposed holdback of the allocations, and yet the law allows you and the President to alter the allocation without a change of law for 90 days.
1974, United States. Congress. Senate. Governmental Operations Committee, To Establish a Department of Energy and Natural Resources, Energy Research and Develoopment Administration, and a Nuclear Safety and Licensing Commission
Thus far, the amount of environmental water recovered through conservation holdbacks has been relatively small.
2016, B. Timothy Heinmiller, Water Policy Reform in Southern Alberta, page 206
A designation of some details about a crime that the police deliberately do not reveal to the public.
Quotations
The result was less a policy as much as a culture of information management among the inner sanctum of detectives working an open and active case, on in which there were strict safeguards placed around what became a nearly universal policy in holdback evidence.
2016, Michael Arntfield, Gothic Forensics, page 92
The probative value of this kind of evidence is often overstated, as holdback evidence can be transmitted to the accused via prior interactions with the police.
2020, Christopher Lutes, “Hart Failure: Assessing the Mr. Big Confessions Framework Five Years Later”, in Manitoba Law Journal: Criminal Law Edition, page 218
verb
third-person singular simple present holdbacks, present participle holdbacking, simple past and past participle holdbacked