holding pattern

noun

Meaning

A path taken by an aircraft waiting to land.
Any failure to advance; useless or unproductive activity.

Etymology / origin

No prose etymology has been added yet.

No ancestor words have been linked yet.

Related words

flow control(English)glide path(English)approach(English)glidepath(English)airway(English)flight path(English)flightpath(English)autolanding(English)

Descendant words

No descendant words have been linked yet.

Sources

DictionaryAPI.dev English dictionary data