hold one's peace
hold one's peace verb: to refrain from speaking; to be silent.
Verb
hold one's peace (third-person singular simple present holds one's peace, present participle holding one's peace, simple past and past participle held one's peace)
- To refrain from speaking; to be silent.
- Thurio: How likes she my discourse?
Proteus: Ill, when you talk of war.
Thurio: But well, when I discourse of love and peace?
Julia: [Aside] But better, indeed, when you hold your peace.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and... - I was dumb with silence,
I held my peace1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 39:2
- Thurio: How likes she my discourse?
Forms of hold one's peace
| third-person singular present | holds one's peace |
|---|---|
| present participle | holding one's peace |
| past participle | held one's peace |
| past | held one's peace |
| alternative form | keep one's peace |
Words formed from hold one's peace
Questions about hold one's peace
- What does hold one's peace mean?
- Hold one's peace means to refrain from speaking; to be silent.
- What part of speech is hold one's peace?
- Hold one's peace is a verb.
- What is the past tense of hold one's peace?
- The past tense of hold one's peace is held one's peace.
Words near hold one's peace in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hold one's peace (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-hold one's peace.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hold one's peace.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_one%27s_peace. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.