Phrasal Verb Fun

hold against
Against
always has the idea of 'confrontation'. It is never friendly.
Drusilla is an idiot, but I don't hold it against her.
(I don't hold this fact against her. I don't blame her.)
The idea is that when we blame somebody, we hold the blame in our
minds like a weapon that we can use any time against them.
There is a song -
If I told you you have a beautiful body,
Would you hold it against me?
It is a
separable two-word verb
Usually we say 'I don't HOLD it AGAINST him.'

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hold down
Holding down a job takes work and effort. If you are too lazy or perhaps
too stupid, the job could just fly away. When we talk of someone holding
down
a job, always there is the sense of achievement. Either the job is
very hard or the person is making an effort to better his life.
For ex-prisoners or ex-drug addicts, holding down any job is an
achievement.
Separable two-word verb
Be careful.
hold on
If you are hanging from a tree, like our ancestors, it must get very tiring. If
you don't hold on to the branch, you will fall and possibly die. Sometimes,
it takes a lot of strength to hold
on
.
Mr Johnson had a terrible time trying to keep his fish-and-chips delivery
business going. But he held on and he held on, and now he is a
success.
Two-word verb without an object
No problem.
Our ancestors held on to a branch. Often, we hold on to an idea, a belief
or a philosophy.
Corinne was as thin as a lamp-post, but she still held on to the idea that
she was fat. Finally, we had to take her to a specialist.
Three-word verb
. No problem.