holdfast

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: holdfasts

A holdfast is a small walled refuge in old tales, less grand than a castle. Shelter in the holdfast.

It is where a minor lord's people go when raiders come, and it is meant only to last out an attack. In biology a holdfast is the root-like part that anchors seaweed to a rock.

Definitions of holdfast

1nounholdfastA small walled refuge in old tales, less grand than a castle, where a minor lord's people shelter from attack.C2
“The whole village fitted inside the holdfast with the animals.”

holdfast is a refuge.

Where it comes from

a deverbal from hold fast.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

holdfast in the wild

A holdfast is a root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms, such as seaweed, other sessile algae, stalked crinoids, benthic cnidarians, and sponges, to the substrate.
Holdfast (biology)
The holdfasts of organisms that live in muddy substrates often have complex tangles of root-like growths.
Holdfast (biology)
A form of bench dog, a traditional holdfast has either a curved or flat top.
Holdfast (tool)
Scrap pieces of wood or leather are often used between the holdfast and the workpiece to prevent marring it.
Holdfast (tool)
The organism had a holdfast, stalk and frond.
Charniodiscus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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