hold
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: hōld
ipa: /həʊld/
ipa: [həʊɫd]
ipa: /hæd/
ipa: /haʊɫd/
enpr: hōld
ipa: /hoʊld/
ipa: [hoəɫd]
ipa: [hoːɫd]
homophone: holed
rhymes: -əʊld
Forms: form: holds
form: holding
form: held
form: held
form: holden
Etymology: Derived from Middle English holden, derived from Old English healdan, derived from Proto-West Germanic *haldan, derived from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to tend, herd”), maybe derived from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”). Doublet of halt.
Cognates
*West Frisian hâlde
*Low German holden, holen
*Dutch houden
*German halten
*Danish
*Norwegian Bokmål holde
*Norwegian Nynorsk halda.
Compare Latin celer (“quick”), Tocharian B käl- (“to goad, drive”), Ancient Greek κέλλω (kéllō, “to drive”), Sanskrit कलयति (kalayati, “to impel”).
Senses: examples: text: Hold the pencil like this.
text: But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…].
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.
ref: 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
synonyms: word: clasp
word: grasp
word: grip
word: beclasp
word: begrasp
word: begrip
word: belock
word: clasp
word: clench
word: clinch
word: cling
word: clutch
word: enclasp
word: fang
word: fondle
word: glaum
word: grab
word: grabble
word: grasp
word: grip
word: hang on
word: hold on
word: hold tight
word: hold
word: nab
word: nim
word: seize
word: stranglehold
word: take
glosses: To grasp or grip.
examples: text: This package holds six bottles.
glosses: To contain or store.
examples: text: Hold my coat for me.
text: The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
text: She was Nicolas Sarkozy's pin-up for diversity, the first Muslim woman with north African parents to hold a major French government post. But Rachida Dati has now turned on her own party elite with such ferocity that some have suggested she should be expelled from the president's ruling party.
ref: 2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To have and keep possession of something.
examples: text: Hold a table for us at 7:00.
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To reserve.
examples: text: Hold the elevator.
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To cause to wait or delay.
examples: text: Hold the suspect in this cell.
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To detain.
examples: text: to hold true
text: The proposition holds.
text: I remember, before the Dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thoſe gardens, and my Nurſe having ſet me down, he and I being cloſe together, near ſome Dwarf Apple trees, I muſt need ſhew my Wit, by a ſilly Alluſion between him and the Trees, which happens to hold in their Language as it doth in ours.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 226–227:
text: The rule holds in land as well as all other commodities.
ref: 1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC:
text: Free speech is a basic human right that holds even during a state of emergency.
ref: 2021 July 20, Masayuki Yuda, “Foodpanda faces backlash after calling Thai protest 'terrorism'”, in Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Inc, retrieved 20 Jul 2021:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).
examples: text: to hold firm
text: Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To keep oneself in a particular state.
examples: text: We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.
ref: 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John (Act iv, scene 2):
text: Death! what do'st? O, hold thy blow.
ref: 1646, Richard Crashaw, Vpon the Death of Mr. Herrys:
text: He hath not sufficient judgment and self-command to hold his tongue.
ref: 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
examples: text: He holds himself proudly erect.
text: Hold your head high.
text: Let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper .
ref: 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To bear, carry, or manage.
examples: text: Lay on, Macduff, and damned him that first cries hold, enough!
ref: 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
Not to move; to halt; to stop.
examples: text: Our force by land hath nobly held.
ref: 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
examples: text: to hold one's bladder
text: to hold one's breath
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to a position or state.
To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.
examples: text: She holds that passive index funds beat actively managed ones: she says that "set it and forget it," when done right, beats playing the market as a gambler.
text: He neuer hild but gracious thoughts of vvomen, yeat, I vvinne, / The fayreſt She he euer ſavv might quit his thoughts of ſinne.
ref: 1602, William Warner, “The Seventh Booke. Chapter XXXVI.”, in Albions England. A Continued Historie of the Same Kingdome, from the Originals of the First Inhabitants thereof: […], 5th edition, London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant for George Potter, […], →OCLC, page 173:
text: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
ref: 1776, Thomas Jefferson et al., United States Declaration of Independence:
text: In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: It's a terrible thought / To have and hold
ref: 2023, Sufjan Stevens, “Javelin (To Have and To Hold)”, in Javelin:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
To maintain, to consider, to opine.
synonyms: have it#Verb
examples: text: He was held responsible for the actions of those under his command.
text: I'll hold him to that promise.
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.
examples: text: Hold not thy peace, and be not still.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 83:1:
text: Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost, / Shall hold their course.
ref: 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.
examples: text: Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Thessalonians 2:15:
text: These reasons mov'd her starlike husband's heart, But still he held his purpose to depart:
ref: 1700, Ovid (John Dryden), Ceyx and Alcyone:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.
examples: text: His dauntless heart would fain have held / From weeping, but his eyes rebelled.
ref: 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis: A Funeral Pindaric Poem:
topics: heading
glosses: To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: To win one's own service game.
examples: text: He came into the hall where the wedding-festival had held […].
ref: 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 9:
glosses: To take place, to occur.
examples: text: Elections will be held on the first Sunday of next month.
text: Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
examples: text: My Crovvn is abſolute, and holds of none.
ref: 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 12:
text: His imagination holds immediately from nature.
ref: 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table:
glosses: To derive right or title.
examples: text: One ham-and-cheese sandwich; hold the mustard.
text: A martini, please, and hold the olive.
glosses: In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.
examples: text: […] first thing clients would say to me would be 'Are you holding?' I'd say yes if we had our supply and no if it was dangerous.
ref: 1933, Goat Laven, Rough Stuff: The Life Story of a Gangster, page 122:
glosses: To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
Synonyms: sense: have and keep possession of something
word: own
sense: take place
word: happen
Derived terms: behold
be left holding the baby
catch hold
don't hold your breath
forehold
forhold
grab hold
holdable
hold a candle
hold a candle for
hold accountable
hold against
hold a grudge
hold a gun to someone's head
hold a light
holdall
hold-all
hold all of the aces
hold all of the cards
hold all the aces
hold all the cards
hold a mirror to
hold a mirror up to
holdase
hold a torch for
hold back
holdback
hold back on
hold by the button
hold cheap
hold come what may
hold court
hold dear
hold down
hold-down
hold down the fort
holder
holdfast
hold fast
hold fire
hold firm
hold for ransom
hold forth
hold good
hold hands
hold hard
hold harmless
hold hostage
hold in
hold in contempt
hold in derision
holding
hold in hand
hold it
hold it down
hold it in
hold it together
hold my beer
hold my milk
hold off
hold on
hold one's alcohol
hold one's breath
hold one's drink
hold oneself together
hold one's fire
hold one's ground
hold one's head above water
hold one's head high
hold one's horses
hold one's jaw
hold one's liquor
hold one's nerve
hold one's nose
hold one's nose up
hold one's own
hold one's peace
hold one's pee
hold one's piece
hold one's piss
hold one's tongue
hold one's water
hold on for
hold on to
hold onto
hold onto your hat
hold out
hold over
hold over someone's head
hold ransom
hold serve
hold short
hold someone's feet to the fire
hold someone's hand
hold space
hold still
hold sway
hold tack
hold that thought
hold the aces
hold the book
hold the cards
hold the floor
hold the fort
hold the line
hold the phone
hold the purse strings
hold the reins
hold the ring
hold the road
hold the stage
hold tight
hold to
hold to account
hold together
hold to ransom
hold true
hold-up
hold up
hold up a mirror to
hold up as
hold up one's end
hold-upper
hold-up play
hold-ups
hold up to
hold water
hold with
hold with the hare and run with the hounds
hold yew hard
hot hold
inhold
mishold
offhold
Omaha hold 'em
one can't hold two watermelons in one hand
one hand can't hold two watermelons
onhold
outhold
overhold
speak now or forever hold your peace
Texas hold 'em
to have and to hold
too hot to hold
underhold
uphold
withhold
held and holding