The word 拖住 is formed through a standard Chinese morphological process known as verb-complement compounding, where the main verb 拖 (tuō, meaning "to pull", "to drag", or "to delay") is combined with the resultative complement 住 (zhù, which here indicates achieving a firm, fixed, or sustained state). Together, they create a single lexical unit meaning "to hold someone/something back", "to pin down", or "to delay successfully", where the action of dragging/delaying is emphasized as being effectively sustained or secured. This structure is highly productive in Chinese, allowing verbs to merge with complements like 住 to denote the successful completion or maintained result of an action.