Meaning of hold | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To grasp or grip.
   transitive
2. To talk at great length.
3. To contain or store.
   transitive
4. To remain loyal or faithful to: She held to her resolutions.
5. To maintain or keep to a position or state.
   transitive
6. To have and keep possession of something.
   transitive
7. To agree with; support: I don't hold with your theories.
8. To reserve.
   transitive
9. To compare favorably with: This film doesn't hold a candle to his previous ones.
10. To cause to wait or delay.
    transitive
11. To fulfill one's part of an agreement; do one's share.
12. To detain.
    transitive
13. To do reasonably well despite difficulty or criticism.
14. To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).
    copulative, intransitive
15. To withhold something from: Don't hold out on me; start telling the truth.
16. To keep oneself in a particular state.
    copulative, intransitive
17. To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
    transitive
18. To pressure (someone) to consent to or undertake something.
19. To bear, carry, or manage.
    transitive
20. To have a controlling influence; dominate.
21. Not to move; to halt; to stop.
    imperative, intransitive
22. To maintain the existing position or state of affairs: had to hold the line on salary increases.
23. Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
    intransitive
24. To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.
25. To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
    transitive
26. To maintain, to consider, to opine.
    transitive
27. To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.
    transitive
28. To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.
29. To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.
30. To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
    archaic
31. To win one's own service game.
    ambitransitive
32. To take place, to occur.
33. To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
34. To derive right or title.
    archaic
35. In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.
    imperative
36. To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
    intransitive, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“This package holds six bottles.”

“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.”

“Hold a table for us at 7:00.”

“Hold the elevator.”

“Hold the suspect in this cell.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“He holds himself proudly erect.”

“Hold your head high.”

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

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

“Our force by land hath nobly held.”

“to hold one's bladder”

“to hold one's breath”

“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”

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

“I'll hold him to that promise.”

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

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

“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:”

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

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

“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.”

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

“His imagination holds immediately from nature.”

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

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

“[…] 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.”

CEFR level