Dictionary

onhold en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English anhealden (“to retain”), from Old English onhealdan, anhealdan (“to hold, keep”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian anhoolde (“to stop, persist”), West Frisian oanhâlde (“to apprehend, arrest, detain”), Dutch aanhouden (“to persist, continue, retain”) and onthouden (“to withhold, retain”), German anhalten (“to stop, last, persist”) and enthalten (“to contain, include”). By surface analysis, on- + hold.

Meanings

1. (dialectal, poetic, rare, transitive) To hold on (to).
   • She leaped and trembled; still onheld his gripe, And gnawed her waning life. 1882, Keningale Robert Cook, The king of Kent:
   • Because of economic downturn, I onhold my dream first and use my lovely office's notebook IBM Thinkpad T60P as my best friend. 2008, An Apple A day
2. (dialectal, intransitive, poetic, rare) To hold on.
   • Resolved, That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Secondary Committee onheld 8 July, 1918, be and they are hereby confirmed. 1919, Middlesbrough (England). Education Committee, Proceedings

Forms

Deriveds

onholding