Word.ws English Dictionary

forhold

Syllables: for·hold/fɔːˈhəʊld/US/fɔɹˈhoʊld/

forhold verb: to detain, hold back, or hold up (someone or something); also, to retain or withhold (something).

Verb

forhold (third-person singular simple present forholds, present participle forholding, simple past forheld, past participle forheld or forholden)

  1. (archaic, rare, transitive) To detain, hold back, or hold up (someone or something); also, to retain or withhold (something).
    • And thegħ he lang ther-to-for was ded, for drede of Iresshe-men, he was for-hold tyl Reymondes comes, & the meygnees, ynto leynestre.[c. 1425, Giraldus Cambrensis [i.e., Gerald of Wales], “Chapter XLIV [MS. Trinity College, Dublin, E. 2. 31]”, in Frederick J[ames] Furnivall, editor, The English Conquest of Ireland. A.D. 1166–1185....
    • [T]estator reserves the right of egress & regress to fetch such goods & implements in the pightle called King's pightle alias Pitmans, now occupied by Thomas Butler; if Thomas Butler foreholds any thing which is above mentioned, then said Thomas & his heirs to loose all benefit from this will.1624 May 11, “[Will Register for 1625] ROGER PAYNE of Easton, yeo. 1 May 1624 [Julian calendar]”, in Marion E. Allen, editor, Wills of the Archdeaconry of Suffolk 1625–1626 (Suffolk Records Society...

Forms of forhold

third-person singular presentforholds
present participleforholding
pastforheld
past participleforheld
past participleforholden

Origin of forhold

From Middle English forholden (“to withhold; to keep (a corpse) unburied”) [and other forms], from Old English forhealdan (“to keep or hold back (something), withhold; to hold away; to disregard, neglect; to hold wrongly, not to keep in good condition”), from for- (prefix meaning ‘away from; wrongly’) + healdan (“to grasp, hold fast; to possess”) (from Proto-West Germanic *haldan (“to hold; to keep”), from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to hold; to keep”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”)). The English word is analysable as for- + hold, and is cognate with Danish forholde (“to relate”), Dutch verhouden (“to relate”), Low German vorholden (“to detain”), German verhalten (“to control, restrain”), Norwegian forholde (“to deal”).

Words that rhyme with forhold

30 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about forhold

What does forhold mean?
Forhold means to detain, hold back, or hold up (someone or something); also, to retain or withhold (something).
What part of speech is forhold?
Forhold is a verb.
How do you pronounce forhold?
Forhold is pronounced /fɔːˈhəʊld/ (UK).
What is the past tense of forhold?
The past tense of forhold is forheld.

Words near forhold in the dictionary

  1. forhews
  2. forhill
  3. forhilled
  4. forhilling
  5. forhills
  6. forhold
  7. forholden
  8. forholding
  9. forholds
  10. forhow
  11. forhowed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forhold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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