hold water | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)To withstandscrutinyorcriticism; to bevalid.2017August 13, Brandon Nowalk, “Oldtown offers one last game-changing secret as Game Of Thrones goes behind enemy lines (newbies)”, inThe Onion AV Club‎[1]:At the parlay, Tyrion also tries to claim Tywin’s murder was self-defense, whichholds some water, and despite Jaime’s anger, I suspect he can see it from that side.1888,Horatio Alger, chapter 35, inThe Errand Boy:"Young man," he said, "upon this point I can only say that your story is grossly improbable. It won'thold water."

Examples:

EN: Give me one reason that'll hold water.
ES: Dame una razón lógica.
EN: My confession won't hold water.
ES: No aceptarán mi confesión.
EN: But if you had her, it will be like having a fine jug that wouldn't hold water.
ES: Sería como tener un botijo muy bonito que... no sirviera para beber.
EN: - I'm afraid your case won't hold water.
ES: - Tu caso no es sólido.
EN: Even if her alibi doesn't hold water, you can't believe...
ES: Aunque su coartada no se sostenga, no puede pensar que...
EN: Your great schemes don't hold water.
ES: Tus cacareados planes no tienen base.
EN: But your ideas are absurd and don't hold water.
ES: Salta a la vista que ellos quieren hacer algo... pero nos oponemos por argumentos absurdos como los tuyos... que no se aguantan por ningún sitio.
EN: That don't hold water.
ES: Eso no se sostiene.
EN: Your theory doesn't hold water.
ES: Su teoría no sirve.
EN: It doesn't hold water.
ES: Pero no es lógico.
EN: It does too hold water.
ES: Sí, sí la tiene. Ya verá.
EN: But Zontar isn't human, so your argument just doesn't hold water.
ES: Pero Zontar no es humano, entonces tu argumento hace aguas por todos lados.
EN: Second, your alibi won't hold water.
ES: Segundo, tu coartada no es creíble.
EN: Fill every barrel and container that'll hold water.
ES: Llene todo barril y envase que pueda contener agua.
EN: We got a case that'll hold water with the grand jury.
ES: Y estoy listo para llamar al Fiscal del Distrito.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).