- 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.
Holding a glass jug, Jorge Velazco Rocha crouches before a contraption of wooden barrels stacked in cascading fashion at his roadside tavern along the scrubby flanks of the Volcán de Colima.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 24, 2026
The proposed changes would exempt deposits into the rainy day fund and a short term reserve, called the “Projected Surplus Temporary Holding Account,” from the state appropriations limit.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2026
Holding such a photo is standard practice with any by-election winner.
From BBC • Jun. 22, 2026
The tests, from manufacturers Fujirebio Diagnostics and Roche Holding, were cleared last year and look for different versions of tau, a protein that forms into tangles in the brain and can lead to memory loss.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026
Holding the coconut up for him to see, I cried, “Look, Grandpa. These coconuts even look like a monkey’s head.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
