To keep fast or close, as in the grasp of the hand; control or prevent the movement or action of, by grasping, binding, arresting, or other means of constraint or detention; retain; keep: as, to hold a horse by the bridle; to hold a prisoner in chains; to hold the attention of an audience; to hold one's self in readiness.To keep back; detain: as, goods held for the payment of duties.To keep back from action; restrain from action or manifestation; withhold; restrain; check.To contain, or be capable of containing; have capacity or accommodation for: as, a basket holding two bushels; the church holds two thousand people.To pursue, prosecute, or carry on; entertain; employ; sustain: as, to hold one's course; to hold a court or a meeting; to hold an argument; to hold intercourse.Specifically, in music: To sing or play, as one of several parts in a harmony: as, to hold the tenor in a glee.To maintain in one part, as a tone, while the other parts progress; dwell upon.To have and retain as one's own; be vested with title to; own: as, to hold a mortgage.To have or be in possession of; occupy: as, to hold land adversely; to hold office.To maintain; uphold; defend: as, to hold one's own; to hold one's right against all comers.To entertain in the mind; regard, or regard as; consider, deem, esteem, or judge to be: as, to hold an opinion or a prejudice; to hold one's self free to act.To decide; lay down the law: as, the court held that the plaintiff was entitled to recover.To bear; endure.To support; maintain; keep up; bear; carry.To keep or set apart as belonging to some one; keep.To bet; wager.To continue to resist or endure.Said of a tone in music whose duration extends over from one measure to the next.To sustain; keep from falling or sinking; hence, to support; uphold.To forcibly stop and rob on the highway: as, to hold up a stage or a mail-carrier.To be sound or consistent throughout; not to be leaky or untenable: as, the argument does not hold water.To keep or maintain a grasp or connection, literally or figuratively; adhere; cling; be or remain unbroken or undetached; not to give way: as, hold on by a rope; the anchor holds well; he holds to his agreement.To maintain a position or a condition; stand fast; remain; continue; last: as, hold still; the garrison held out; my promise holds good.To hold one's way; keep going on; go forward; proceed.To be restrained; refrain; cease or pause in doing something: commonly used in the imperative.To have a possession, right, or privilege; derive title: followed by of, from, or under: as, to hold directly of or from the crown; tenants holding under long leases.In shooting, to take aim.To continue; keep going.To stop; halt: chiefly in the imperative.To aim directly at moving game.To stop; cease; especially, to stop raining.To continue the same speed; keep up the pace: a word of command to hunting-dogs.In sporting, to maintain one's record, score, performance, or winnings.n. The act of holding; a grasp, grip, or clutch; a seizure or taking possession; hence, controlling force: as, to take hold; to lay hold of; to keep hold of a thing; imagination has a strong hold upon him.n. Something which may be grasped for support; that which supports; support.n. Confinement; imprisonment; keeping.n. A fortified place; a place of security; a castle; a stronghold.n. A dwelling; habitation.n. In law, land in possession; holding; the estate held; tenure: as, freehold, estate held in fee or for life, this being anciently the estate or tenure of a freeman; leasehold, a holding by lease.n. In musical notation, the sign or , placed over or under a note or rest, indicating a pause, the duration of which depends upon the performer's discretion; a pause or fermata. It is also placed over a bar to indicate either the end of a repeat or a pause between two distinct sections.Gracious; friendly; faithful; true.n. Nautical, the interior of a ship or vessel below the deck, or below the lower deck, in which the stores and freight are stowed.Same as hold, intransitive verb, 7.To hold or back up (a rivet which is being headed over).Specifically, in archery, to make a short pause, after drawing a bow, for fixing the aim and preparing to loose the bowstring.Of a female animal, to retain the spermatozoa of the male so that she may become pregnant.n. In old Eng. hist., the title of an officer in the Danelaw corresponding to the high reeve among the English.
