Hold

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: hōld, IPA: /həʊld/, /hɔʊld/
• GenAm enPR: hōld, IPA: /hoÊŠld/
• also IPA: /hlÌ©d/
• Homophones: hulled
• Homophones: holed
• Rhymes: -əʊld

From Middle English hold, holde, from Old English hold ("gracious, friendly, kind, favorable, true, faithful, loyal, devout, acceptable, pleasant"), from Proto-Germanic *hulþaz ("favourable, gracious, loyal"), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- ("to tend, incline, bend, tip"). Cognate with German hold ("gracious, friendly, sympathetic, grateful"), Danish and Swedish huld ("fair, kindly, gracious"), Icelandic hollur ("faithful, dedicated, loyal"), German Huld ("grace, favour").

Full definition of hold

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Gracious; friendly; faithful; true.

From Middle English holden, from Old English healdan, from Proto-Germanic *haldaną ‘to tend, herd’, from Proto-Indo-European *kel- ‘to drive’ (compare Latin celer ("quick"), Tocharian B kälts ("to goad, drive"), Ancient Greek κέλλω (kellō, "to drive"), Sanskrit kaláyati ("he impels")).

Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, s.v. "hold¹" (1988; reprint, Chambers, 2008), 486.

D.Q. Adams, "Drive", in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), 170.

Cognate to West Frisian hâlde, Low German holden, holen, Dutch houden, German halten, Danish holde.

Verb

1. (transitive) To grasp or grip.Hold the pencil like this.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, 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.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 23, 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.
• 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, 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.
2. (transitive) To contain or store.This package holds six bottles.
3. To maintain or keep to a position or state.
1. (transitive) To have and keep possession of something.Hold my coat for me.The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
• 2011, December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism, 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.
2. (transitive) To reserve.Hold a table for us at 7:00.
3. (transitive) To cause to wait or delay.Hold the elevator.
4. (transitive) To detain.Hold the suspect in this cell.
5. (intransitive) To be or remain valid; to apply.to hold true;   to hold good
• John Locke (1632-1705)The rule holds in land as all other commodities.
6. To keep oneself in a particular state.to hold firm;   to hold opinions
• 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 2, 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.
7. (transitive) To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.
• Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)Death! what do'st? O,hold thy blow.
• Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)He hath not sufficient judgment and self-command to hold his tongue.
8. (transitive) To bear, carry, or manage.He holds himself proudly erect.Hold your head high.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Let him hold his fingers thus.
9. (intransitive, mostly, imperative) Not to move; to halt; to stop.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)And damned be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
10. (intransitive) Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Our force by land hath nobly held.
4. To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
1. (transitive) To maintain, to consider, to opine.
• 1776, Thomas Jefferson et al., United States Declaration of Independence: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.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 1, 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.
2. (transitive) To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.I'll hold him to that promise.He was held responsible for the actions of those under his command.
3. To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.
• Bible, Psalms lxxxiii. 1Hold not thy peace, and be not still.
• John Milton (1608-1674)Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost,
  Shall hold their course.
4. To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.
• Bible, 2 Thessalonians ii. 15Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.
• John Dryden (1631-1700)But still he held his purpose to depart.
5. (archaic) To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
• John Dryden (1631-1700)His dauntless heart would fain have held
  From weeping, but his eyes rebelled.
5. (tennis, ambitransitive) To win one's own service game.
6. To organise an event or meeting.Elections will be held on the first Sunday of next month.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 5, 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.
7. (archaic) To derive right or title.
• John Dryden (1631-1700)My crown is absolute, and holds of none.
• 1817, William Hazlitt, ''The Round TableHis imagination holds immediately from nature.

Antonyms

• release

Derived terms

Noun

1. A grasp or grip.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 7, Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
2. Keep a firm hold on the handlebars.
3. Something reserved or kept.We have a hold here for you.
4. (wrestling) A position or grip used to control the opponent.He got him in a tight hold and pinned him to the mat.
5. (gambling) The percentage the house wins on a gamble, the house or bookmaker's hold.The House Hold on the game is 10,000, this is the amount of decision or risk the house wishes to assume.
6. (gambling) The wager amount, the total hold.As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015
7. (tennis) An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken.
• 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold.
8. A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
9. (video games, dated) A pause facility.
• 1983, New Generation Software, Knot in 3D (video game instruction leaflet)A hold facility is available; H holds, and S restarts.
• 1987?, Imagine Software, Legend of Kage (video game instruction leaflet)SCREEN 5 — Perhaps the toughest — going like the clappers sometimes works but generally you'll have to be smarter than that. If things get a little too hectic and you don't even have time to reach the HOLD key, try taking a short rest below the top of the stairs.

Derived terms

• handhold
• household
• no holds barred
• on hold
• stronghold
• threshhold
• military hold
• personal hold

Alteration (due to hold) of hole. Cognate with Dutch hol ("hole, cave, den, cavity, cargo hold").

Noun

1. (nautical, aviation) The cargo area of a ship or aircraft, (often cargo hold).Put that in the hold.

Anagrams

• dhol