Word.ws English Dictionary

hold the reins

hold the reins verb: to be in charge, to be in control, as of a business, political organization, or other group.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To be in charge, to be in control, as of a business, political organization, or other group.
    • These terms . . . will place the future behavior of Germany at the dictation of the associated powers regardless of what form of provisional government may hold the reins at Berlin.1918 November 11, “Washington Believes Foch Will Still Accept Envoys' Signatures”, in Toronto World, page 1
    • The convention also delivered a slap to the technocrats who have held the reins of government for more than a decade.1996 October 7, Michael Serrill, “Mexico's Black Mood”, in Time

hold the reins meaning in Bengali

hold the reins in Bengali

দায়িত্বে থাকা, নিয়ন্ত্রণে থাকা, রাজনৈতিক সংগঠন, বা অন্য কোনো দলে

Forms of hold the reins

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

Origin of hold the reins

A metaphor, based on the usual method of controlling a horse or a team of horses.

Questions about hold the reins

What does hold the reins mean?
Hold the reins means to be in charge, to be in control, as of a business, political organization, or other group.
What is hold the reins in Bengali?
Hold the reins in Bengali is দায়িত্বে থাকা, নিয়ন্ত্রণে থাকা, রাজনৈতিক সংগঠন. See Hold the reins meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is hold the reins?
Hold the reins is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold the reins?
The past tense of hold the reins is held the reins.

Words near hold the reins in the dictionary

  1. hold the floor
  2. hold the fort
  3. hold the line
  4. hold the phone
  5. hold the purse strings
  6. hold the reins
  7. hold the ring
  8. hold the road
  9. hold the stage
  10. hold tight
  11. hold time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold the reins (page history and authors); hold the reins (Bengali Wiktionary) (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 the reins.ogg.

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