She tried to hold back her tears, but could not.

He did not try to hold back his own tears.

The young man tried without success to hold back his tears.

So why did she have to fight to hold back her tears?

At that point, the husband could no longer hold back his tears.

After this I could do nothing to hold back my own tears.

He was doing his best to hold back tears, but it wasn't easy.

He could see she was fighting hard to hold back tears.

I looked down and realized she was holding back tears.

Trying hard to hold back my tears, I was dragged off.