Holding back
Taking and holding back are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Taking" instead an adjective phrase "Holding back".
Taking
Taking adjective - Very pleasing to look at.
Holding back and taking are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Holding back" instead an adjective "Taking".
Mutual synonyms
Both terms in one sentence
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Final Boss Preview: The station's AI tries to murder you in a boss fight about halfway through the game - defeating it results in it holding back and retreating instead of taking you out then and there.
- Gotenks does every stupid bit from the earlier fights in the show, such as taking forever to power up and holding back so much he risks losing the fight, but draws attention to it.
- It's worth noting that Supes didn't actually kill any of them, but rather knocked them out using various methods, meaning that while taking all of them down seemingly effortlessly, he was still holding back.
Source: Curb Stomp Battle / Comic Books
Cite this Source
Taking and Holding back. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 22, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/holding_back/taking
Holding back & Taking. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/holding_back/taking>.
Taking or Holding back. 2016. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/holding_back/taking.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "holding back" and "taking" have occurred on timeline