Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HOLD, v.t. [pret. held; pp. held. Holden is obsolete in elegant writing. Sax. healdan; G. halten; D. houden, l suppressed; Sw. hålla; Dan. holder; Gr. κωλυω, to hold or restrain; Heb. כול to hold or contain; Ch. and Syr. to measure, that is, to limit; כלא, to confine, restrain, or shut up; Ch. Syr. id; Ar. كلا, to keep, guard or preserve; Ch. אכל, to take, also to eat, to roar, to thunder. See Call. The primary sense is, to press, to strain. Class Gl, No. 18, 32, 36, 40.]

1. To stop; to confine; to restrain from escape; to keep fast; to retain. It rarely or never signifies the first act of seizing or falling on, but the act of retaining a thing when seized or confined. To grasp, is to seize, or to keep fast in the hand; hold coincides with grasp in the latter sense, but not in the former. We hold a horse by means of a bridle. An anchor holds a ship in her station.
2. To embrace and confine, with bearing or lifting. We hold an orange in the hand, or a child in the arms.
3. To connect; to keep from separation. The loops held one curtain to another. Exod. xxxvi.
4. To maintain, as an opinion. He holds the doctrine of justification by free grace.
5. To consider; to regard; to think; to judge, that is, to have in the mind. I hold him but a fool. Shak. The Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain. Exod. xx.
6. To contain, or to have capacity to receive and contain. Here is an empty basket that holds two bushels. This empty cask holds thirty gallons. The church holds two thousand people.
7. To retain within itself; to keep from running or flowing out. A vessel with holes in its bottom will not hold fluids. They have hewed them out broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Jer. ii.
8. To defend; to keep possession; to maintain. With what arms / We mean to hold what anciently we claim / Of empire. Milton.
9. To have; as, to hold a place, office or title.
10. To have or possess by title; as, he held his lands of the king. The estate is held by copy of court-roll.
11. To refrain; to stop; to restrain; to withhold. Hold your laughter. Hold your tongue. Death! what do'st? O, hold thy blow. Crashaw.
12. To keep; as, hold your peace.
13. To fix; to confine; to compel to observe or fulfill; as, to hold one to his promise.
14. To confine; to restrain from motion. The Most High – held still the flood till they had passed. 2 Esdras.
15. To confine; to bind; in a legal or moral sense. He is held to perform his covenants.
16. To maintain; to retain; to continue. But still he held his purpose to depart. Dryden.
17. To keep in continuance or practice. And Night and Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy. Milton.
18. To continue; to keep; to prosecute or carry on. Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost, / Shall hold their course. Milton.
19. To have in session; as, to hold a court or parliament; to hold a council.
20. To celebrate; to solemnize; as, to hold a feast.
21. To maintain; to sustain; to have in use or exercise; as, to hold an argument or debate.
22. To sustain; to support. Thy right hand shall hold me. Ps. cxxxix.
23. To carry; to wield. They all hold swords, being expert in war. Cant. iii.
24. To maintain; to observe in practice. Ye hold the traditions of men. Mark vii.
25. To last; to endure. The provisions will hold us, till we arrive in port. So we say, the provisions will last us; but the phrase is elliptical for will hold or last for us, the verb being intransitive. To hold forth, to offer; to exhibit; to propose. Observe the connection of ideas in the propositions which books hold forth and pretend to teach. Locke. #2. To reach forth; to put forward to view. Cheyne. To hold in, to restrain; to curb; to govern by the bridle. Swift. #2. To restrain in general; to check; to repress. Hooker. To hold off, to keep at a distance. Pope. To hold on, to continue or proceed in; as, to hold on a course. To hold out, to extend; to stretch forth. The king held out to Esther the golden scepter. Esther v. #2. To propose; to offer. Fortune holds out these to you as rewards. B. Jonson. #3. To continue to do or suffer. He can not long hold out these pangs. [Not used.] Shak. To hold up, to raise; as, hold up your head. #2. To sustain; to support. He holds himself up in virtue. Sidney. #3. To retain; to withhold. #4. To offer; to exhibit. He held up to view the prospect of gain. #5. To sustain; to keep from falling. To hold one's own, to keep good one's present condition; not to fall off, or to lose ground. In seamen's language, a ship holds her own, when she sails as fast as another ship, or keeps her course. To hold, is used by the Irish, for to lay, as a bet, to wager. I hold a crown, or a dollar; but this is a vulgar use of the word.