- present participle of hold.
holding
Americannoun
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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.
AOL’s holding company goes public, the World Cup boosts prediction markets, and Eric Trump loses more than $600 million on Bitcoin.
From Slate • Jul. 11, 2026
Teams back at base weighed and sorted each collection before holding a number of pop-up food shops throughout the week.
From BBC • Jul. 11, 2026
The holding cell erupted into cheers, as they did every time someone got released.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 10, 2026
Garcia later wrote on social media that he was referring to any team that might be unfamiliar with holding a lead and it would have applied to teams from other continents.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
It was the streams and rivers that were holding us up.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
