Word.ws English Dictionary

hold a mirror to

hold a mirror to verb: to reflect; to represent and by resemblance provide insight into.

Verb

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

  1. To reflect; to represent and by resemblance provide insight into.
    • Or, as Dr. Gregory Stevenson suggests, do the supernatural trials and tribulations of the Winchesters appeal because they merely hold a mirror to the more mundane terrors we all face every day?2009, Leah Wilson, In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural, page 39
    • Such representations, which hold a mirror to the oppressed person's reality, arise from problem posing and dialogues that allow the meek to grasp the dimensions of their oppression.2010, J. P. Singh, Globalized Arts: The Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity
  2. To elucidate; to make explicit some aspect of.
    • To speak "truth to power" should not be considered negative: to hold a mirror to society, even a mirror that embodies the biases and anguish of its creator, is not a negative act.2005, Omar Swartz, In Defense of Partisan Criticism, page 55
    • My daughter Valerie, who has a unique ability to hold a mirror to my behavior, helped me see reality.2009, Miriam Neff, From One Widow to Another: Conversations on the New You, page 38
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hold, mirror.
    • Hold a mirror to the pet's nose. If no condensation appears, the animal is probably dead.2011, David Borgenicht, Joshua Piven, Ben H. Winters, The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Man Skills

Examples of hold a mirror to in a sentence

  • They hold a mirror to our own perceptions and to the influence—good and bad—that we can have on those we are trying to help.2011, Reginald Nettles, Rochelle Balter, Multiple Minority Identities, page 44:
  • Bradley points towards this modern renaissance in history because he sees that history does not hold a mirror to the past, but embraces it through the critical understanding of the historian.2012, Peter Johnson, Collingwood's The Idea of History:
  • They must be natural as theatre is meant to hold a mirror to reality and represent it.2013, Making Sense of Hamlet!:
  • All a facilitator can do is hold a mirror to the group.2012, Merianne Liteman, Sheila Campbell, Jeffrey Liteman, Retreats That Work, page 143:

Forms of hold a mirror to

third-person singular presentholds a mirror to
present participleholding a mirror to
past participleheld a mirror to
pastheld a mirror to
alternative formhold up a mirror to

Questions about hold a mirror to

What does hold a mirror to mean?
Hold a mirror to means to reflect; to represent and by resemblance provide insight into.
How do you use hold a mirror to in a sentence?
They hold a mirror to our own perceptions and to the influence—good and bad—that we can have on those we are trying to help.
What part of speech is hold a mirror to?
Hold a mirror to is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold a mirror to?
The past tense of hold a mirror to is held a mirror to.

Words near hold a mirror to in the dictionary

  1. hold a candle
  2. hold a candle for
  3. hold a grudge
  4. hold a gun to someone's head
  5. hold a light
  6. hold a mirror to
  7. hold a mirror up to
  8. hold a torch for
  9. hold against
  10. hold all of the aces
  11. hold all of the cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold a mirror to (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: “hold a mirror to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_a_mirror_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.