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分享一个知识点： Reader question: Please explain “no-holds barred” in this sentence: In this exclusive no-holds barred interview, the actor reveals the wilder side of his personality. My comments: If means the reporter may ask any questions he or she wants to. In other words, the reporter may ask about the actor’s private life, e.g. his family, marriage and his affair with his secretary, and he will answer them without saying: “No comment.” That is what the expression “no holds barred” implies at any rate. It means no restrictions whatsoever. In other words, anything goes, no limits, no mercy. The term itself comes from the sport of wrestling. If you observe Olympic wrestling, you’ll notice that there are rules, obviously, to govern how the game should be played. For example, wrestlers are not supposed to grip an opponent by the throat, or by the ear for that matter. In other words, certain “holds” or “grips” are barred (prohibited, off limits, not allowed). If there were “no holds barred”, on the other hand, then the players could do anything to each other. That would be a melee (riot) in the back street, you say, not an Olympic sport. Well, you get the picture. Here are recent media examples of “no holds barred”: 1. At the end of the storm, as the lyrics to the club’s anthem go, there’s a golden sky. There certainly was on this occasion, courtesy of Liverpool’s answer to the Sunshine Kid, Fernando Torres. Even deprived of their equivalent to Butch Cassidy, Steven Gerrard, one gunslinger was enough to shoot Liverpool out of a particularly dangerous corner. Four successive defeats had made for tempestuous times at Anfield, but a sunny day on Merseyside concluded with the scalp Liverpool prize most: that of Manchester United. ... | 
