approve vs hold off

approve

verb
  • To officially sanction; to ratify; to confirm; to set as satisfactory. 

  • To make profit of; to convert to one's own profit — said especially of waste or common land appropriated by the lord of the manor. 

  • To consider worthy (to); to be pleased (with); to accept. 

  • To regard as good; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of. 

hold off

verb
  • To delay someone or something temporarily; to keep at bay. 

  • To delay commencing (an action until some specified time or event has passed). 

How often have the words approve and hold off occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )