Definition
A painted yellow marking on a taxiway, consisting of four yellow lines (two solid and two dashed) running across the taxiway, that identifies the location where an aircraft must stop when it does not have clearance to enter the runway. The solid lines are on the side from which the hold is required; the dashed lines are on the runway side. Aircraft approaching the runway must stop short of the solid lines unless cleared by ATC to cross or enter the runway.
Plain English
Yellow lines painted across a taxiway that tell a pilot exactly where to stop before reaching the runway. You don't cross those lines onto the runway without permission from the tower.
Context Anchor
Seen on taxiways leading to runways and at places where one runway or taxi route crosses another runway.
Derivation
"Hold" here means to stay in place, the same sense as "hold position." The marking is the painted line that shows where to do that holding before entering a runway.
Why Pilots Care
Correctly stopping at this marking prevents runway incursions and maintains safe separation from traffic on the runway.
Intuition Check
Do not read “hold” as a vague suggestion to slow down or wait nearby. In this context, it means stop before the painted marking and do not cross it until you are allowed to.
Example Sentence 1
Ground instructed us to taxi to runway 27 via Alpha and hold short, so we stopped with the nose just behind the runway hold marking.
Example Sentence 2
During the runway change, the crew identified the runway hold marking and waited for ATC before crossing.