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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

hold good en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • /ˌhəʊld ˈɡʊd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˌhoʊld ˈɡʊd/ (General-American)
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From hold (“to maintain in being or action; to continue; to sustain”) + good.

Meanings

  1. (intransitive) To continue being true or valid; to hold true.
    • That explanation does not hold good in this matter.
    • The law holds not good for them.
  2. (intransitive) To remain effective, fast, or secure.
    • She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good! / She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood! / They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years, / Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, / Cold, on the stroke of midnight, / The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers! 1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza IV, pages 50–51:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
held good Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
held good Tense=Past lexicographic
holding good Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
holds good Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Synonyms

hold

Translations (2)

el αληθεύει (to continue being true or valid — see also hold true) · da gælde (to continue being true or valid — see also hold true)