hold

Fetched 2026-10-30 (live).

Datamuse reports no synonyms or antonyms for this word.

Verb

1. To grasp or grip.
   • Hold the pencil like this.
2. To contain or store.
   • This package holds six bottles.
3. 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.
   • Hold a table for us at 7:00.
   • Hold the elevator.
   • Hold the suspect in this cell.
   • to hold true
   • The proposition holds.
   • to hold firm
   • He holds himself proudly erect.
   • Hold your head high.
   • to hold one's bladder
   • to hold one's breath
4. To have and keep possession of something.
   • Hold my coat for me.
   • The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
5. To reserve.
   • Hold a table for us at 7:00.
6. To cause to wait or delay.
   • Hold the elevator.
7. To halt or delay (medication) temporarily.
8. To detain.
   • Hold the suspect in this cell.
9. To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).
   • to hold true
   • The proposition holds.
10. To keep oneself in a particular state.
    • to hold firm
11. To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
12. To bear, carry, or manage.
    • He holds himself proudly erect.
    • Hold your head high.
13. Not to move; to halt; to stop.
14. Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
15. To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.
    • to hold one's bladder
    • to hold one's breath
16. 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.
    • He was held responsible for the actions of those under his command.
    • I'll hold him to that promise.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.
20. To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.
21. To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
22. To win one's own service game.
23. To take place, to occur.
24. To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
    • Elections will be held on the first Sunday of next month.
25. To derive right or title.
26. 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.
27. To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.

Noun

1. A grasp or grip.
   • 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.
5. Something reserved or kept.
   • We have a hold here for you.
6. Power over someone or something.
   • The fad has gained a sure hold on every teenager.
7. The ability to persist.
8. The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair.
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.
15. A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
16. A pause facility.
17. The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy.
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.

Noun

1. 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.

Adjective

1. Gracious; friendly; faithful; true.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.