anchorhold

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noun

The residence of an anchorite or anchoress.

Scrabble 19
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Meanings

nounanchorhold (countable and uncountable, plural anchorholds)

plural anchorholds

  1. countableuncountableThe residence of an anchorite or anchoress.

    Every anchorhold was built close to a church, so as to allow its occupant the privilege of seeing the performance of mass, and of receiving the consecrated wafer, […]

    1893, Emily Sarah Holt, “Chapter Five. Warned”, in One Snowy Night, Reprint edition (Historical Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2009
  2. countableuncountableThe hold or grip of an anchor, or something to which it holds.

    […] a great tempest arose, which caused many of our ships to drive from their anchorhold, […]

    1910, Captain Walter Biggs, Drake's Great Armada, Reprint edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2006
    1 more example

    The Port is very commodious, being one of the largeſt in all theſe Seas , and there is very good Anchorhold all over the Bay

    1763, John Harris, Navigantium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca
  3. countablefigurativelyuncountableFirm hold; security.

Origin

From anchor + hold.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

anchorhold. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchorhold

MLA

“anchorhold.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchorhold. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anchorhold,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anchorhold.

Source: anchorhold on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.