Word.ws English Dictionary

held a candle

held a candle is the simple past and past participle of hold a candle.

Meaning of hold a candle

Verb

hold a candle (third-person singular simple present holds a candle, present participle holding a candle, simple past and past participle held a candle)

  1. To compare; to be even remotely of the same quality, skill, etc. as another.
    • The old computer just doesn't hold a candle to the latest models.

Questions about held a candle

What is held a candle the simple past and past participle of?
Held a candle is the simple past and past participle of hold a candle.

Words near held a candle in the dictionary

  1. helcomyzid
  2. helcomyzids
  3. helcosis
  4. HELCs
  5. held
  6. held a candle
  7. held a candle for
  8. held a grudge
  9. held a gun to someone's head
  10. held a light
  11. held a mirror to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held a candle (page history and authors); hold a candle (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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Cite this entry: “held a candle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/held_a_candle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.