hold.
To grasp or grip.
Meaning & usage
To grasp or grip.
Hold the pencil like this.
To contain or store.
This package holds six bottles.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To have and keep possession of something.
Hold my coat for me.
The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To reserve.
Hold a table for us at 7:00.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To cause to wait or delay.
Hold the elevator.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To halt or delay (medication) temporarily.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To detain.
Hold the suspect in this cell.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).
to hold true
The proposition holds.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To keep oneself in a particular state.
to hold firm
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.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To bear, carry, or manage.
He holds himself proudly erect.
Hold your head high.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. Not to move; to halt; to stop.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
To maintain or keep to a position or state. To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.
to hold one's bladder
to hold one's breath
To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions. To maintain, to consider, to opine.
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.
To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions. To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.
He was held responsible for the actions of those under his command.
I'll hold him to that promise.
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.
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.
To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions. To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
To win one's own service game.
To take place, to occur.
To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
Elections will be held on the first Sunday of next month.
To derive right or title.
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.
To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *haldaną Proto-West Germanic *haldan Old English healdan Middle English holden English hold 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”).
A grasp or grip.
Keep a firm hold on the handlebars.
An act or instance of holding.
Can I have a hold of the baby?
A place where animals are held for safety
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.
Something reserved or kept.
We have a hold here for you.
Power over someone or something.
The fad has gained a sure hold on every teenager.
The ability to persist.
The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair.
A position or grip used to control the opponent.
He got him in a tight hold and pinned him to the mat.
An exercise involving holding a position for a set time
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.
The wager amount, the total hold.
An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken.
The part of an object one is intended to grasp, or anything one can use for grasping with hands or feet.
A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
A pause facility.
The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy.
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.
A region of airspace reserved for aircraft being kept in a holding pattern.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *haldaną Proto-West Germanic *haldan Old English healdan Middle English holden English hold 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”).
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.
Where this word comes from
Alteration (due to hold) of hole. Cognate with Dutch hol (“hole, cave, den, cavity, cargo hold”), Dutch holte (“cavity, hollow, den”).
Gracious; friendly; faithful; true.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hold, holde, from Old English hold (“gracious, friendly, kind”), from Proto-West Germanic *holþ, 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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.