Word.ws English Dictionary

hold over someone's head

hold over someone's head verb: to harp on; to remind continuously (especially of a misstep or defeat).

Verb

hold over someone's head (third-person singular simple present holds over someone's head, present participle holding over someone's head, simple past and past participle held over someone's head)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To harp on; to remind continuously (especially of a misstep or defeat).
    • I get one parking ticket and he holds it over my head for six months.

Forms of hold over someone's head

third-person singular presentholds over someone's head
present participleholding over someone's head
past participleheld over someone's head
pastheld over someone's head

Questions about hold over someone's head

What does hold over someone's head mean?
Hold over someone's head means to harp on; to remind continuously (especially of a misstep or defeat).
What part of speech is hold over someone's head?
Hold over someone's head is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold over someone's head?
The past tense of hold over someone's head is held over someone's head.

Words near hold over someone's head in the dictionary

  1. hold onto
  2. hold onto your hat
  3. hold out
  4. hold outs
  5. hold over
  6. hold over someone's head
  7. hold ransom
  8. hold serve
  9. hold short
  10. hold someone's feet to the fire
  11. hold someone's hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold over someone's head (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-hold over someone's head.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hold over someone's head.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hold_over_someone%27s_head. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.