Driving around in a
small area (such as a parking lot). This is usually
done because of lack of parking spaces or lack of desirable parking spaces. Often used while waiting to
pick somebody up or for a parking space to become available.
Derived from: Aviation term. A repetitive route flown by an aircraft which keeps it in the same area. A holding pattern is used when an aircraft (commonly a commercial airliner) cannot land at an airport, often simply because there are no available runways. In this circumstance, the aircraft
will enter a holding pattern while it awaits its turn to land.
It is believed that this term, used in the automotive
context, was first used by Steve Packard, however, if anyone else has used this term previously to describe driving in cirles, feel free to
post.
When I dropped Mike off to pick up the pizza, there were no good parking spaces, so I went into a holding pattern until he came out.
I didn’t want to double
park while waiting for Sue to come out of the
store, so I went into a holding pattern, driving around the
block until I saw her emerge.