hold

verb

1. (transitive)To grasp or grip.

   “Hold the pencil like this.”

   “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[…].”

   “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.”

   “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. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “Hold my coat for me.”

   “The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.”

   “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.”

4. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “Hold a table for us at 7:00.”

5. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “Hold the elevator.”

6. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “Patients who test positive for COVID-19 infection should be advised to hold their biologic dose until their infection clears.”

7. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “Hold the suspect in this cell.”

8. (copulative, intransitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “to hold true”

   “The proposition holds.”

   “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.”

   “The rule holds in land as well as all other commodities.”

   “Free speech is a basic human right that holds even during a state of emergency.”

9. (copulative, intransitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

   “to hold firm”

   “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.”

10. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

    “We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.”

    “Death! what do'st? O, hold thy blow.”

    “He hath not sufficient judgment and self-command to hold his tongue.”

11. (transitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

    “He holds himself proudly erect.”

    “Hold your head high.”

    “Let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper .”

12. (imperative, intransitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

    “Lay on, Macduff, and damned him that first cries hold, enough!”

13. (intransitive)To maintain or keep to a position or state.

    “Our force by land hath nobly held.”

14. To maintain or keep to a position or state.

    “to hold one's bladder”

    “to hold one's breath”

15. (transitive)To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

    “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.”

    “He neuer hild but gracious thoughts of vvomen, yeat, I vvinne, / The fayreſt She he euer ſavv might quit his thoughts of ſinne.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

    “It's a terrible thought / To have and hold”

16. (transitive)To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

    “He was held responsible for the actions of those under his command.”

    “I'll hold him to that promise.”

17. To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

    “Hold not thy peace, and be not still.”

    “Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost, / Shall hold their course.”

18. To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

    “Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.”

    “These reasons mov'd her starlike husband's heart, But still he held his purpose to depart:”

19. (archaic)To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

    “His dauntless heart would fain have held / From weeping, but his eyes rebelled.”

20. (ambitransitive)To win one's own service game.
21. To take place, to occur.

    “He came into the hall where the wedding-festival had held […].”

22. To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).

    “Elections will be held on the first Sunday of next month.”

    “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.”

23. (archaic)To derive right or title.

    “My Crovvn is abſolute, and holds of none.”

    “His imagination holds immediately from nature.”

24. (imperative)In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.

    “One ham-and-cheese sandwich; hold the mustard.”

    “A martini, please, and hold the olive.”

25. (intransitive, slang)To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.

    “[…] 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.”

noun

1. A grasp or grip.

   “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.”

   “Keep a firm hold on the handlebars.”

2. An act or instance of holding.

   “Can I have a hold of the baby?”

3. A place where animals are held for safety
4. An order that something is to be reserved or delayed, limiting or preventing how it can be dealt with.

   “Senator X placed a hold on the bill, then went to the library and placed a hold on a book.”

   “Because there were no “launch commit criteria” regarding surface booster temperatures that might cause a hold on the launch, the ice team did not report the temperatures to the launch controllers.”

5. Something reserved or kept.

   “We have a hold here for you.”

6. Power over someone or something.

   “The Judge accepts the payment, the law no longer has a hold on you, and therefore you are free to walk out of the court a free man or woman.”

   “War has a hold on our cultural imaginations as an inevitable force, it is peace that has no benefactor.”

7. The ability to persist.

   “This year I slept and woke with pain, ⁠I almost wish’d no more to wake, ⁠And that my hold on life would break Before I heard those bells again: […]”

   “Despite their seemingly strong hold on life, as indicated by the persistence of movement in decapitation tests, rattlers are relatively frail creatures and are easily killed.”

8. The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair.

   “Sculpturing gels provide stiffer hold than styling gels, which provide better hold than mousses.”

9. A position or grip used to control the opponent.

   “He got him in a tight hold and pinned him to the mat.”

10. An exercise involving holding a position for a set time
11. 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.”

12. The wager amount, the total hold.

    “As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015”

13. An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken.
14. The part of an object one is intended to grasp, or anything one can use for grasping with hands or feet.

    “So 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.”

    “The beginner will instinctively try to stick his toe straight in in a foot hold, which is very tiring on the calf muscles.”

15. A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
16. (dated)A pause facility.

    “A hold facility is available; H holds, and S restarts.”

    “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.”

17. The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy.

    “Given that there is an average on-hold time of more than five minutes while enquiries are being dealt with, the telephone hold system provided the best opportunity.”

    “Even the "on-hold" messages on Southwest's telephone system are humorous, ensuring anyone inconvenienced by the hold is entertained.”

    “Note. After the device downloads its new configuration file, we can test placing a call on hold and the generic hold music will be heard.”

18. A statistic awarded to a relief pitcher who is not still pitching at the end of the game and who records at least one out and maintains a lead for his team.
19. A region of airspace reserved for aircraft being kept in a holding pattern.
20. The cargo area of a ship or aircraft (often holds or cargo hold).

    “We watched our luggage being loaded into the hold of the plane.”

adj

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

   “at the proper moment, I stepped forward with a gay heart and a hold one”