hold

hold

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of hold in English

English Online Dictionary. What means hold‎? What does hold mean?

English

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hōld, IPA(key): /həʊld/, [həʊɫd]
  • (General American) enPR: hōld, IPA(key): /hoʊld/, [hoəɫd]
  • (Canada) IPA(key): [hoːɫd]
  • Homophone: holed
  • Rhymes: -əʊld

Etymology 1

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”).

Compare Latin celer (“quick”), Tocharian B käl- (“to goad, drive”), Ancient Greek κέλλω (kéllō, “to drive”), Sanskrit कलयति (kalayati, “to impel”).

Verb

hold (third-person singular simple present holds, present participle holding, simple past held, past participle held or (archaic) holden)

  1. (transitive) To grasp or grip.
    Synonyms: clasp, grasp, grip; see also Thesaurus:grasp
  2. (transitive) To contain or store.
  3. (heading) To maintain or keep to a position or state.
    1. (transitive) To have and keep possession of something.
    2. (transitive) To reserve.
    3. (transitive) To cause to wait or delay.
    4. (transitive) To detain.
    5. (intransitive, copulative) To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).
    6. (intransitive, copulative) To keep oneself in a particular state.
    7. (transitive) To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
    8. (transitive) To bear, carry, or manage.
    9. (intransitive, chiefly imperative) Not to move; to halt; to stop.
    10. (intransitive) Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
    11. To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.
  4. (heading) To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
    2. (transitive) To maintain, to consider, to opine.
      Synonym: have it
    3. (transitive) To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.
    4. To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.
    5. To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.
    6. (archaic) To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
  5. (tennis, ambitransitive) To win one's own service game.
  6. To take place, to occur.
  7. To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
  8. (archaic) To derive right or title.
  9. (imperative) In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.
  10. (slang, intransitive) To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
Synonyms
  • (have and keep possession of something): own; See also Thesaurus:possess
  • (not to move): See also Thesaurus:stop
  • (not to give way): See also Thesaurus:persevere
  • (restrain oneself): See also Thesaurus:desist
  • (take place): happen; See also Thesaurus:happen
Antonyms
  • release
Derived terms
  • See also held and holding
Translations

Noun

hold (plural holds)

  1. A grasp or grip.
  2. An act or instance of holding.
  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.
  5. Something reserved or kept.
  6. Power over someone or something.
  7. The ability to persist.
  8. The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair.
  10. (wrestling, self-defense) A position or grip used to control the opponent.
  11. (exercise) An exercise involving holding a position for a set time
  12. (gambling) The percentage the house wins on a gamble, the house or bookmaker's hold.
  13. (gambling) The wager amount, the total hold.
    As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015
  14. (tennis) An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken.
  15. The part of an object one is intended to grasp, or anything one can use for grasping with hands or feet.
  16. A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
  17. (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.
  18. The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy.
  19. (baseball) 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.
  20. (aviation) A region of airspace reserved for aircraft being kept in a holding pattern.
Synonyms

(exercise): isometric exercise

Derived terms
Translations

See also

  • behold

References

Etymology 2

Alteration (due to hold) of hole. Cognate with Dutch hol (“hole, cave, den, cavity, cargo hold”), Dutch holte (“cavity, hollow, den”).

Noun

hold (plural holds)

  1. (nautical, aviation) The cargo area of a ship or aircraft (often holds or cargo hold).
Derived terms
  • forehold
Translations

Etymology 3

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”).

Adjective

hold (comparative more hold, superlative most hold)

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

Anagrams

  • dhol, hodl

Chinese

Etymology

From English hold.

Pronunciation

Verb

hold (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. to put something on hold; to cause delay
  2. to possess
  3. to reserve

Related terms

  • hold住

Czech

Etymology

Inherited from Old Czech hold, from Middle High German hulde (German Huld).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈɦolt]
  • Homophone: holt

Noun

hold m inan

  1. homage, tribute
    Antonym: úcta
    vzdát/složit někomu hold ― to pay tribute to someone

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • “hold”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
  • “hold”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
  • “hold”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈhʌlˀ]

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hald (“grip, power, hold”). Also see holde (“to hold”), to which it is ultimately related.

Noun

hold n (singular definite holdet, plural indefinite hold)

  1. team (group of persons working or playing together)
  2. class (group of students taught together)
  3. distance, side (only with the prepositions på or fra and an adjective)
  4. truth
  5. pain (in the muscles)
  6. (rare) hold
Declension

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

hold

  1. imperative of holde

German

Etymology

From Middle High German holt, from Old High German hold, from Proto-West Germanic *holþ, from Proto-Germanic *hulþaz. Cognates include Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌸𐍃 (hulþs, “clement”) and Old Norse hollr ( > Danish huld).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɔlt/

Adjective

hold (strong nominative masculine singular holder, comparative holder, superlative am holdesten)

  1. (dated, literary, predicative) affectionate, devoted, loyal [with dative ‘to someone/something’]
    Synonyms: treu, ergeben, zugetan
  2. (archaic, poetic or humorous) gracious, graceful, comely, dainty

Declension

Further reading

  • “hold” in Duden online
  • “hold” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Hungarian

Etymology

From Proto-Uralic *kuŋe. Cognates include Hungarian hó (“month”), Finnish and Estonian kuu.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈhold]
  • Hyphenation: hold
  • Rhymes: -old

Noun

hold (plural holdak)

  1. moon, natural satellite
    A Szaturnusznak a tudomány jelenlegi állása szerint 83 holdja van. ― According to the current state of science, Saturn has 83 moons.
    1. (in compounds) lunar
      holdfogyatkozás ― lunar eclipse
  2. unit of surface area, originally the same as acre, but currently usually indicating katasztrális hold, though its different types range from 3500 m² to 8400 m²
    Hyponym: (its most common type, approx. 5755 m²) katasztrális hold

Usage notes

Some astronomical and geographical terms have both a lowercase (common noun) and a capitalized (proper noun) form. For föld (“ground, soil”)―​Föld (“Earth”), hold (“moon, satellite”)―​Hold (“the Moon”), and nap (“day; sun”)―​Nap (“the Sun”), the lowercase forms are used in the everyday sense and the capitalized forms in the astronomical sense. In other similar pairs, the former refers to generic sense, and the latter specifies the best known referent: egyenlítő (“equator”)―​Egyenlítő (“Equator”), naprendszer (“solar system, planetary system”)―​Naprendszer (“Solar System”), and tejút (“galaxy”, literally “milky way”, but galaxis and galaktika are more common)―​Tejút (“Milky Way”).[5][6][7][8]

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • (moon): hold in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
  • (area of 5,755 m²): hold in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse hold, from Proto-Germanic *huldą, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-, *kwol-. Cognate with Swedish hull.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [hɔlt]
  • Rhymes: -ɔlt

Noun

hold n (genitive singular holds, no plural)

  1. flesh
    • Isaiah 40 (Icelandic, English)

Declension

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English hold, from Proto-West Germanic *holþ, a variant on a root meaning ‘lean, incline’ (compare Old English heald, hieldan).

Cognates include Old Frisian hold, Old Saxon hold, Old High German hold (German hold), Old Norse hollr (Danish huld, Swedish huld), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌸𐍃 (hulþs).

Adjective

hold

  2. gracious, friendly, faithful
Descendants
  • English: hold

Etymology 2

From Old English hold, from Proto-Germanic *huldą, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-, *kwol-. Cognates include Old Norse hold (“flesh”) (Icelandic hold, Swedish hull), and (from Indo-European) Old Irish colainn, Welsh celain.

Alternative forms

  • holde

Noun

hold

  2. carcass, flesh

Related terms

  • holdeste, unhold, holdelike, holdoþ

Descendants

  • English: hold

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

hold

  1. imperative of holde

Derived terms

  • (of noun) dyrehold
  • (of noun) kosthold
  • (of noun) husdyrhold

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

  • hoill (Trøndelag dialect)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Norse hold. Compare Icelandic hold, Danish huld and Swedish hull. Attested in a magic spell from Setesdal by J.E. Moe written as haall.

Noun

hold n (definite singular holdet, indefinite plural hold, definite plural holda)

  1. superficial flesh (including fat)

Old English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /xold/, [hoɫd]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *huldą, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-, *kwol-. Cognates include Old Norse hold (“flesh”) (Icelandic hold, Swedish hull), and (from Indo-European) Old Irish colainn, Welsh celain.

Noun

hold n (nominative plural hold)

  2. dead body; carcass
Declension

Strong a-stem:

Descendants
  • Middle English: hold
    • English: hold

Etymology 2

From Proto-West Germanic *holþ, a variant on a root meaning ‘lean, incline’ (compare Old English heald, hieldan).

Cognates include Old Frisian hold, Old Saxon hold, Old High German hold (German hold), Old Norse hollr (Danish huld, Swedish huld), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌸𐍃 (hulþs).

Adjective

hold (comparative holdra, superlative holdost) (+ dative)

  2. gracious, loyal, kind
  3. friendly
    • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint Maur, Abbot"
Declension
Derived terms
  • holdlīċe
Descendants
  • Middle English: hold
    • English: hold

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *holþ. Cognate with Old English hold (“gracious, loyal, kind”), Old Norse hollr.

Adjective

hold

  1. friendly, loyal

Declension

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Middle High German: holt
    • German: hold
    • Yiddish: האָלט האָבן (holt hobn)

Spanish

Noun

hold m (plural holds)

  1. (baseball) hold

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This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.