Word.ws English Dictionary

held the reins

held the reins is the simple past and past participle of hold the reins.

Meaning of hold the reins

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be in charge, to be in control, as of a business, political organization, or other group.
    • These terms . . . will place the future behavior of Germany at the dictation of the associated powers regardless of what form of provisional government may hold the reins at Berlin.1918 November 11, “Washington Believes Foch Will Still Accept Envoys' Signatures”, in Toronto World, page 1

Questions about held the reins

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

Words near held the reins in the dictionary

  1. held the cards
  2. held the floor
  3. held the line
  4. held the phone
  5. held the purse strings
  6. held the reins
  7. held the ring
  8. held the road
  9. held the stage
  10. held tight
  11. held to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held the reins (page history and authors); hold the reins (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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