Dictionary

forhold en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /fɔːˈhəʊld/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /fɚ-/ (General-American)
• /fə-/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /fɔɹˈhoʊld/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English forholden (“to withhold; to keep (a corpse) unburied”) [and other forms], from Old English forhealdan (“to keep or hold back (something), withhold; to hold away; to disregard, neglect; to hold wrongly, not to keep in good condition”), from for- (prefix meaning ‘away from; wrongly’) + healdan (“to grasp, hold fast; to possess”) (from Proto-West Germanic *haldan (“to hold; to keep”), from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to hold; to keep”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”)). The English word is analysable as for- + hold, and is cognate with Danish forholde (“to relate”), Dutch verhouden (“to relate”), Low German vorholden (“to detain”), German verhalten (“to control, restrain”), Norwegian forholde (“to deal”).

Meanings

1. (archaic, rare, transitive) To detain, hold back, or hold up (someone or something); also, to retain or withhold (something).
   • King Alfred, his Son, when he made the League with Guthran King of the Danes [i.e., Guthrum], An[no] 878. made a Law to lay pecuniary Mulcts on all Engliſh or Danes, who ſhould detain or forhold their Tithes, the Dane being to forfeit Twenty ſhillings, and the Engliſh man, Thirty […] 1682, Tho[mas] Comber, “Of the English Laws for Tithes”, in An Historical Vindication of the Divine Right of Tithes, from Scripture, Reason, and the Opinion and Practice of Jews, Gentiles, and Christians in All Ages. […], London: […] S. Roycroft, for Robert Clavel […], →OCLC, §. IV and V, page 171:
   • When the subject of contract is lawful, not public in its character, and the exercise of it is purely private and personal to the parties it can not be for holden or limited by the Legislature. According to the judgment the passage is a quotation from State v. Goodwill, 33 W. Va. 188 (1889), but the passage does not appear in the latter case. 1911 June 24, Justice Pearce, Maryland Court of Appeals, State v. Potomac Valley Coal Co., 116 Md. 380, page 400
   • [T]estator reserves the right of egress & regress to fetch such goods & implements in the pightle called King's pightle alias Pitmans, now occupied by Thomas Butler; if Thomas Butler foreholds any thing which is above mentioned, then said Thomas & his heirs to loose all benefit from this will. 1624 May 11, “[Will Register for 1625] ROGER PAYNE of Easton, yeo. 1 May 1624 [Julian calendar]”, in Marion E. Allen, editor, Wills of the Archdeaconry of Suffolk 1625–1626 (Suffolk Records Society Series; XXXVII), Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, Boydell & Brewer, published 1995, →ISBN, paragraph 139, page 72:
   • And thegħ he lang ther-to-for was ded, for drede of Iresshe-men, he was for-hold tyl Reymondes comes, & the meygnees, ynto leynestre. [c. 1425, Giraldus Cambrensis [i.e., Gerald of Wales], “Chapter XLIV [MS. Trinity College, Dublin, E. 2. 31]”, in Frederick J[ames] Furnivall, editor, The English Conquest of Ireland. A.D. 1166–1185. Mainly from the ‘Expugnatio Hibernica’ of Giraldus Cambrensis. […] (in Middle English), London: Publisht for the Early English Text Society, by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., […], published 1896, →OCLC, page 108:

Forms