Hold your horses means slow down and wait. You say it to someone who is rushing ahead with a decision, a conclusion or a purchase. It sounds informal and slightly playful. It is better not to say it to your manager or an examiner, and it does not belong in an essay, where you would write there is no need to rush.
When would you say hold your horses?
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Hold your horses! (reply); (just) hold your horses + a minute/a second; tell + someone + to hold his/her/their horses
- Hold your horses! You can open your presents after dinner.
- Just hold your horses a minute and let me finish explaining the plan.
- My teacher told me to hold my horses and check my answers before handing in the test.
What changed
First versionHold back your horses, we haven't even seen the flat yet!
RevisionHold your horses, we haven't even seen the flat yet!
Hold back may seem to fit, since the idea is to stop someone going too fast, but the idiom has a fixed form without back: hold your horses. On its own, hold back means to restrain someone or to control yourself. The correction was to remove back.
Hang on and hold on are simply requests to wait, with no criticism: Hang on, I'll get my keys. Hold your horses carries a light reproach: the other person is rushing into a decision, and you ask them to stop and think. Your changes depending on who is being asked to wait: I told him to hold his horses.
Your turn
Mark wanted to book the flights before we had even agreed on the dates, so I told him to ___.
Show the answer
hold his horses — Mark is rushing to book the flights before the dates are agreed, so he is being asked not to hurry: hold his horses. Hold his tongue means to keep quiet, and it would fit if Mark had said something he shouldn't have.
Imagine a friend or colleague is rushing into an important decision. Write what exactly they want to do and why it would be better to wait.
Hold your horses, Sam: you want to buy that car today, but we haven't even checked its service history.
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