From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishon holdon holdTCTWAIT a) if something is on hold, it is going to be done or dealt with at a later date rather than now The plans are on hold until after the election. Since having the kids, my career has been put on hold. b) if you are on hold, you are waiting to talk to someone on the telephone We try not to keep people on hold for more than a couple of minutes. The agent put me on hold while she consulted a colleague. → hold
Examples from the Corpus
on hold• You're always on hold for about 10 minutes before you get to talk to anyone.• I put Dana on hold while I tried to find Steve. 