Word.ws English Dictionary

hold the book

hold the book verb: to act as prompter.

Verb

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

  1. To act as prompter.
    • In a little time, and you'll cease to hold the book to men and women; no, you'll have to prompt nothing but earthquakes, and give the word to nobody but dragons and flying fish.1860, Douglas Jerrold, Blanchard Jerrold, The Brownrigg Papers, page 133
    • Here we are! now then," he said, as they entered the theatre, "clear the stage, all ready for the first piece. Who'll hold the book? Here, Puzzleton, you've nothing to do, just prompt will you, like a good fellow?1869, Hawley Smart, Breezie Langton, volume 1, page 190

Forms of hold the book

third-person singular presentholds the book
present participleholding the book
past participleheld the book
pastheld the book

Questions about hold the book

What does hold the book mean?
Hold the book means to act as prompter.
What part of speech is hold the book?
Hold the book is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold the book?
The past tense of hold the book is held the book.

Words near hold the book in the dictionary

  1. hold still
  2. hold sway
  3. hold tack
  4. hold that thought
  5. hold the aces
  6. hold the book
  7. hold the cards
  8. hold the floor
  9. hold the fort
  10. hold the line
  11. hold the phone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold the book (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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