Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HOLD, n.

1. A grasp with the hand; an embrace with the arms; any act or exertion of the strength or limbs which keeps a thing fast and prevents escape. Keep your had; never quit your hold. It is much used after the verbs to take, and to lay; to take hold, or to lay hold, is to seize. It is used in a literal sense; as, to take hold with the hands, with the arms, or with the teeth; or in a figurative sense. Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Ex. xv. Take fast hold of instruction. Prov. iv. My soul took hold on thee. Addison.
2. Something which may be seized for support; that which supports. If a man be upon a high place, without a good hold, he is ready to fall. Bacon.
3. Power of keeping. On your vigor now, / My hold of this new kingdom all depends. Milton.
4. Power of seizing. The law hath yet another hold on you. Shak.
5. A prison; a place of confinement. They laid hands on them, and put them in hold till the next day. Acts iv.
6. Custody; safe keeping. King Richard, he is in the mighty hold / Of Bolingbroke. Shak.
7. Power or influence operating on the mind; advantage that may be employed in directing or persuading another, or in governing his conduct. Fear – by which God and his laws take the surest hold of us. Tillotson. Gives fortune no more hold of him than is necessary. Dryden.
8. Lurking place; a place of security; as, the hold of a wild beast.
9. A fortified place; a fort; a castle; often called a strong hold. Jer. li.
10. The whole interior cavity of a ship, between the floor and the lower deck. In a vessel of one deck, the whole interior space from the keel or floor to the deck. That part of the hold which lies abaft the main-mast is called the after-hold; that part immediately before the main-mast, the main-hold; that part about the fore-hatchway, the fore-hold. Mar. Dict.
11. In music, a mark directing the performer to rest on the note over which it is placed. It is called also a pause.