Word.ws English Dictionary

held the ring

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

Meaning of hold the ring

Verb

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

  1. (obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants.
    Synonyms:
    keep the ring
  2. To be a spectator at a fight; (figuratively) to watch other people argue.
  3. (UK, idiomatic) To oversee a situation while attempting to remain uninvolved in it.
    • Police held the ring during the protests.
  4. Of a prizefighter: to hold one's own during a fight; to continue winning a series of fights.

Questions about held the ring

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

Words near held the ring in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held the ring (page history and authors); hold the ring (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 the ring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/held_the_ring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.