Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use hold in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective

Hold means to grasp or grip. Example: “Hold the pencil like this.”

Examples of hold by meaning

verbTo grasp or grip.

  • Hold the pencil like this.
  • He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  • Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist

verbTo contain or store.

  • This package holds six bottles.

verbTo have and keep possession of something.

  • Hold my coat for me.
  • The general ordered the colonel to hold his position at all costs.
  • She was Nicolas Sarkozy's pin-up for diversity, the first Muslim woman with north African parents to hold a major French government post.2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian

verbTo reserve.

  • Hold a table for us at 7:00.

verbTo cause to wait or delay.

  • Hold the elevator.

verbTo halt or delay (medication) temporarily.

  • Patients who test positive for COVID-19 infection should be advised to hold their biologic dose until their infection clears.2020 June, Nicholas D. Brownstone, Quinn G. Thibodeaux, Vidhatha D. Reddy, Bridget A. Myers, Stephanie Y. Chan, Tina Bhutani, Wilson Liao...

verbTo detain.

  • Hold the suspect in this cell.

verbTo be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).

  • to hold true
  • The proposition holds.
  • Free speech is a basic human right that holds even during a state of emergency.2021 July 20, Masayuki Yuda, “Foodpanda faces backlash after calling Thai protest 'terrorism'”, in Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Inc, retrieved 20...

More sentences with hold

  • The Bushes have held political office for several decades and the Kennedys longer.From the entry the
  • A quarter session is one held quarterly at the end of a quarter.From the entry quarter
  • The metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas holds that all real beings have both essence and existence.From the entry metaphysics
  • This theory still holds good even if much higher temperatures are assumed.From the entry good
  • I'm just going to duck into the loo for a minute; can you hold my bag?From the entry duck
  • The Sunshine Festival is held annually, at the end of May.From the entry annually
  • The feet of the stove hold it a safe distance above the floor.From the entry foot
  • We were held up by a truck in the middle lane of the freeway.From the entry lane
  • He claims he can hold his breath for three minutes straight.From the entry straight
  • She'd been here many times before, it was true. Still, she held out some hope.From the entry still
  • His lectures held up Napoleon as an example of the phenomenon.From the entry hold up
  • Bride of Frankenstein is an old film, but it holds up.From the entry hold up
  • Hold on to my umbrella while I ride the roller coaster.From the entry hold on
  • He didn't give up his fandom when others did; he held on.From the entry hold on
  • The prospectus held out the promise of enormous profits to be made.From the entry hold out
  • Pack the boxes, but hold out a few blue ones for later.From the entry hold out
  • Let's try to hold off the lawyers until we are ready for them.From the entry hold off
  • Hold off (on) the decision one more day so I can answer your question.From the entry hold off
  • This project is on hold until we can get more information.From the entry on hold
  • I have a book on hold for me at the library.From the entry on hold
  • The old computer just doesn't hold a candle to the latest models.From the entry hold a candle
  • That guy sure can hold a grudge when something goes wrong.From the entry hold a grudge
  • I made a mistake. That's not a good reason to hold a grudge against me.From the entry hold a grudge
  • I respect your right to hold that belief, although I think it is nonsense.From the entry respect
  • He's a year older than his classmates, because he was held back in second grade.From the entry hold back
  • We should hold over this report until the new department lead comes in.From the entry hold over

Meaning of hold

  1. verb To grasp or grip.
  2. verb To contain or store.
  3. verb To have and keep possession of something.

Full definition of hold

Questions about hold in a sentence

How do you use hold in a sentence?
Hold is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “Hold the pencil like this.”
What is a short sentence with hold?
“Hold the elevator.”
What does hold mean?
Hold means to grasp or grip.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use hold in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/hold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.