holding pattern

English Thesaurus

1. the flight path (usually circular) maintained by an aircraft that is awaiting permission to land (noun.location)

hypernym	:	air lane, airway, flight path, skyway,
definition	:	a designated route followed by airplanes in flying from one airport to another (noun.location)

2. a state of inaction with no progress and no change (noun.state)

hypernym	:	inaction, inactiveness, inactivity,
definition	:	the state of being inactive (noun.state)