- present participle of hold.
holding
Americannoun
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holdings
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
I am concerned about holding onto an expensive property for another 10-20 years when I don’t know where my children will ultimately live or whether they will even want or be able to maintain it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
The Del Vecchio family's Luxembourg-based holding company, Delfin, is the largest shareholder in the eyewear giant, with around 32.4 percent of its capital.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Fitch, which had been holding Chicago in low investment-grade territory, also began issuing upgrades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
I felt even cooler holding my sword, knees bent, feet wide, ready and waiting in my “advance” stance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
A man holding a rifle across his chest, wearing a holstered gun on his waist, stands guard.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Her holdings are now worth 5% less than when she started in December.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The inspiration for the series began with the fact that the Museum’s holdings included an actual VistaVision projector built in the early 1990s for dailies screenings but which hadn’t been used for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Judge said he regularly sees swings in the tens of thousands of dollars, which is not a problem in itself, but depends on the size of the person’s total holdings.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
Cantor plans to serve as a broker to those clients, buying or selling blocks of event contracts and often helping to distribute those holdings to other investors through private negotiations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Greenberg, who already owned a similar number of houses in the section, was expanding his holdings to exploit the housing crunch caused by urban renewal.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
