Word.ws English Dictionary

holding in

holding in is the present participle and gerund of hold in.

Meaning of hold in

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To keep something to oneself; to prevent from escaping.
    • to hold in laughter, or one's emotions
  2. (dated, intransitive) To restrain oneself.
    • He wanted to laugh and could hardly hold in.
  3. (transitive) To keep (someone) in prison or jail.

Questions about holding in

What is holding in the present participle and gerund of?
Holding in is the present participle and gerund of hold in.

Words near holding in in the dictionary

  1. holding firm
  2. holding for ransom
  3. holding forth
  4. holding good
  5. holding hostage
  6. holding in
  7. holding in contempt
  8. holding in derision
  9. holding in hand
  10. holding it
  11. holding it down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holding in (page history and authors); hold in (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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Cite this entry: “holding in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holding_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.