Dictionary

anchorhold en · NOUN

Etymology

From anchor + hold.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The residence of an anchorite or anchoress.
   • Every anchorhold was built close to a church, so as to allow its occupant the privilege of seeing the performance of mass, and of receiving the consecrated wafer, […] 1893, Emily Sarah Holt, “Chapter Five. Warned”, in One Snowy Night, Reprint edition (Historical Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2009:
2. (countable, uncountable) The hold or grip of an anchor, or something to which it holds.
   • The Port is very commodious, being one of the largeſt in all theſe Seas , and there is very good Anchorhold all over the Bay 1763, John Harris, Navigantium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca:
   • […] a great tempest arose, which caused many of our ships to drive from their anchorhold, […] 1910, Captain Walter Biggs, Drake's Great Armada, Reprint edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2006:
3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) Firm hold; security.

Forms

Relateds

anchoress · anchoritess · anchorite