Word.ws English Dictionary

hold the floor

hold the floor verb: to give a speech at a gathering of people, particularly one that lasts for a long time and is the focus of attention in the room.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To give a speech at a gathering of people, particularly one that lasts for a long time and is the focus of attention in the room.
    • ... floor of the Senate under which it is possible for a Senator to take the floor, and then an understanding be reached that he will hold the floor over the night recess and have the floor at the beginning of the next day's session.1945, United States. Congress, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, page 8124
    • 23 presiding officer to recognize first the majority leader when no other Senator holds the floor and the majority leader seeks recognition . This precedent is the structural basis for the majority leader's capacity to propose unanimous[…]2004, Richard G. Forgette, Richard Forgette, Congress, Parties, & Puzzles: Politics as a Team Sport, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 139

Forms of hold the floor

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

Questions about hold the floor

What does hold the floor mean?
Hold the floor means to give a speech at a gathering of people, particularly one that lasts for a long time and is the focus of attention in the room.
What part of speech is hold the floor?
Hold the floor is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold the floor?
The past tense of hold the floor is held the floor.

Words near hold the floor in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold the floor (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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