- present participle of hold.
holding
Americannoun
-
holdings
plural
-
the act of a person or thing that holds.
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a section of land leased or otherwise tenanted, especially for agricultural purposes.
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a company owned by a holding company.
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Often holdings. legally owned property, especially stocks, bonds, or real estate.
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Library Science. holdings, the entire collection of books, periodicals, and other materials in a library.
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Sports. the illegal obstruction of an opponent, as in football, basketball, or ice hockey, by use of the hands, arms, or stick.
noun
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land held under a lease and used for agriculture or similar purposes
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(often plural) property to which the holder has legal title, such as land, stocks, shares, and other investments
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sport the obstruction of an opponent with the hands or arms, esp in boxing
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of holding
First recorded in 1175–1225, holding is from the Middle English word holding. See hold 1, -ing 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Their first flowing move of the home game led to a try for full-back AJ Brimson after being set up by a sensational driving run from Young, holding off two tacklers over 20 metres.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
The FAI governing body, holding its 120th general conference in Lausanne from Wednesday to Friday, validated the record attempt after verifying the flight data.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
In a wide-ranging interview before the event, Kim — who was appointed in February after holding an interim presidential role — said he leads USC at a time of promise and deep challenges:
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
The best of them took the time to study policy briefings, meet department heads and the most active beat reporters before holding their first briefing.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Oh, that’s perfect on you. Now just …” She reaches up and pulls the elastic holding my ponytail out.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
“Regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be clear, the team is not being sold,” Walter’s holdings company said in a statement last month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
A standalone classification could force investment funds tracking the MSCI's emerging market indexes to sell Indonesian holdings.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Israel remains one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative economies, and those holdings remain an important part of our portfolio,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
That makes for some concentrated and predictable holdings in large technology-oriented names, such as Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Alphabet, which owns Google.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
His family's modest holdings were on the smallest of the Fingers, and Petyr had been slight and short for his age.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
