Skip to main content

Holding down the fort

Thanks for holding down the fort

every other piano player ._.

holding up the wall 

Based on lyrical evidence, this term refers to those that visit a club and, instead of dancing and being sociable, remain out the outskirts of the dance floor, away from the 'action.'

A more traditional term for this behavior is 'wallflower.'

However, as evidenced in 'Everytime Tha Beat Drop' example below, 'holding up the wall' may also refer to a case where an individual requests that another engage in an activity only to be turned down due to (occasionally perceived) social or financial status (i.e. the archetypal 'girl that's too good for you').
"I'm soon to motivate the room ... If you holdin' up the wall, then you missin' the point." -Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says

"Cause I ain't one of these too bourgeois broads /
Always in the club holding up the wall" -Monica featuring Dem Franchize Boyz, Everytime Tha Beat Drop
holding up the wall by owenkun September 21, 2008

Holding thumbs 

Used extensively in South Africa as a gesture of good luck.
Jim, I'm holding thumbs that you win the big race tomorrow.
Holding thumbs by Saffa-Jaymz June 29, 2016

i'm holding it for a friend

I am most certainly not holding it for a friend.
Johnny what is this newly purchased carton of Marlboro's doing in your sock drawer?

It's not mine...I'm holding it for a friend!

baby's arm holding an apple

A large penis.

The term comes from a Lenny Bruce routine about African-American men ("Their wangs look like a baby's arm with an apple in its fist" as immortalized in his book _How to Talk Dirty and Influence People_), but this exact wording is taken from The Tubes' song "What Do You Want From Life", from their first album.

Since not everyone gets the reference, the term typically is used as an in-joke.
What Carrie really wants is a baby's arm holding an apple.

holding the cards 

Being in a public restroom, needing to poop, but afraid you will make a very loud sound if you let go. You try to wait till everyone else leaves.
I tried holding the cards till my boss left
holding the cards by Johnny A April 21, 2003