From a newspaper report today:

"Police said two gunmen were shot dead, but two more were still believed to be holed up inside the hotel."

Shouldn't this be hold up? I always thought the expression was from an archaic use of 'hold' (as in a stronghold) as a past-participle, and that the use of 'holed' was a recent hompohonous development. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it has always been 'holed'?

There are plenty of webxamples of 'were hold up' but this could of course be a typo for 'holed up' so how can I tell?

I always thought that the gunmen holed up (as in hid in their burrow) after the bank was held up.

I believe it's to hole up (link). Besides past tense of to hold up (as in delay, link) would be held up.

Yeah, I'm with you on this one. As in Bunker Hole.

Bunker is much better than burrow.