hold

To hold something is to keep it in your hands and not let go. Holding a cup of tea, holding a child's hand at the crossing, hold this a second while I find my keys.

The word reaches much further than hands. A jug holds two litres and a hall holds four hundred people. You hold a meeting, hold an election, hold a job, hold a record, hold an opinion. You hold still, hold your breath, hold the door, and on the phone somebody asks you to hold. When a rope or a shelf or a spell of good weather holds, it stays as it is under strain. The noun means a grip — get hold of me tomorrow, keep a firm hold on the rail — and on a ship the hold is the great space below deck where cargo goes. The past forms are irregular: hold, held, held.

Phrases it lives in

• hold on — wait a moment, said to keep somebody where they are
• get hold of — manage to reach someone, or manage to obtain something
• hold your tongue — say nothing, though you want to