Hold Out and Bread and Butter

Today's verbal phrase is Hold Out, which has four meanings:
1. To extend something: to stretch out or extend a part of the body, or offer something to somebody by doing this (transitive verb/separable).

She held out her hand.
The rescuers held a rope out to the swimmer.

2. To last: to keep up or continue to be in supply (intransitive verb/inseparable).

Is the food holding out?
 
3. To endure: to continue to resist and not give in to something (intransitive verb/inseparable).

The miners held out for two days without food or water
When the government forces attacked their strong hold, the rebels held out for six weeks.

4.  resist: to refuse to settle something or accept something until all demands or conditions are met (intransitive verb/inseparble)

The bus drivers are holding out for a 6 percent raise  

Synonyms: offer, give, present, extend, proffer, stretch out
stand firm, stand your ground, persist, endure, withstand, persevere, stand fast, last, resist


Antonym: withdraw

My good old bread and butter

Today's idiom is Bread and Butter and means,
someone's basic income; someone's livelihood—the source of one's food.

I can't miss another day of work.  That's my bread and butter. 
I worked as a bartender for a year, and it was the tips that were my bread and butter.  
Teaching at the local college is his bread and butter.    
Our customers are our bread and butter, so treat them with respect.
This a bread and butter issue, one that will affect people directly and in a very important way.
His curveball was his bread and butter pitch