hold water

English

Etymology

Possibly from the King James Version of Jeremiah 2:13: “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

Pronunciation

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Verb

hold water (third-person singular simple present holds water, present participle holding water, simple past and past participle held water)

1. (idiomatic) To withstand scrutiny or criticism; to be valid.
   • 2017 August 13, Brandon Nowalk, “Oldtown offers one last game-changing secret as Game Of Thrones goes behind enemy lines (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     At the parlay, Tyrion also tries to claim Tywin’s murder was self-defense, which holds some water, and despite Jaime’s anger, I suspect he can see it from that side.

   • 1888, Horatio Alger, chapter 35, in The Errand Boy:

     "Young man," he said, "upon this point I can only say that your story is grossly improbable. It won't hold water."

Translations

withstand scrutiny

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 站得住 (zh) (zhàndezhù), 站得住腳／站得住脚 (zh) (zhàndezhù jiǎo), 成立 (zh) (chénglì)

• Danish: holde vand (da)
• Finnish: pitää vettä, kestää tarkastelua, olla vedenpitävä
• French: tenir la route (fr)
• Italian: reggere un ipotesi
• Russian: выде́рживать критику (vydérživatʹ kritiku)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: држати воду

  Latin: držati vodu

See also

• hold up
• hold one's water
• watertight

Anagrams

• hotelward