Word.ws English Dictionary

hold by

hold by verb: to subscribe to (an idea , rule, authority, etc.); to personally consider valid or authoritative.

Verb

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

  1. (Judaism) To subscribe to (an idea , rule, authority, etc.); to personally consider valid or authoritative.
    • Micha claims that C is non-halakhic because it does not hold by the "Gdly" origin of Gezera Shava or the other hermeneutical principles.1998 March 24, Jay Lapidus, “Gezera Shava”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet)
    • If you hold by the Reb Moshe Tsuvah and elect in accordance with his Tshuva to use Chalav Yisroel, you are right. According to those who follow poskim who reject that Tshuva, it is not kosher.1998 July 10, Harry Weiss, “Calling for Kashrut”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet)

Examples of hold by in a sentence

  • For example, the greatest posek of our generation, Rav Moshe, did not hold by them.1998 August 12, jody eisenman, “An Open Message to Gene”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet):
  • most/all say that someone obligated in the mitzvah of tsitsit has to tie them on for them to be valid, which if you hold by traditional halacha would be a male over age 13.2000 March 27, j e rosenbaum, “Questions about Tallit”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet):
  • The rabbis can't legislate something which the people won't hold by - consent of the governed exists even in traditional halacha.2000 April 10, Jonathan J. Baker, “[Halacha] About rice, beans, and corn on Pesach”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet):

Forms of hold by

third-person singular presentholds by
present participleholding by
past participleheld by
pastheld by

Origin of hold by

Calque of Yiddish האַלטן בײַ (haltn bay, “stick to”).

Questions about hold by

What does hold by mean?
Hold by means to subscribe to (an idea , rule, authority, etc.); to personally consider valid or authoritative.
How do you use hold by in a sentence?
For example, the greatest posek of our generation, Rav Moshe, did not hold by them.
What part of speech is hold by?
Hold by is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold by?
The past tense of hold by is held by.

Words near hold by in the dictionary

  1. hold all the aces
  2. hold all the cards
  3. hold back
  4. hold back on
  5. hold baggage
  6. hold by
  7. hold by the button
  8. hold cheap
  9. hold come what may
  10. hold court
  11. hold dear

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold by (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “hold by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.