holding pattern
Appearance
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]holding pattern (plural holding patterns)
- (aviation) A path taken by an aircraft waiting to land.
- The plane flew in a holding pattern for half an hour because one runway was closed.
- (idiomatic) Any failure to advance; useless or unproductive activity.
- This project is in a holding pattern until all the parts arrive.
- December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian[1]:
- All of Sellafield is in a holding pattern, trying to keep waste safe until it can be consigned to the ultimate strongroom: the geological disposal facility (GDF), bored hundreds of metres into the Earth’s rock, a project that could cost another £53bn.
Translations
[edit]path of aircraft
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failure to advance
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