onhold

O1N1H4O1L1D2

verb

To hold on (to).

OriginMiddle English anhealden ← Old English onhealdan →
UncommonScrabble 10
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbonhold (third-person singular simple present onholds, present participle onholding, simple past onheld, past participle onheld or onholden)

present singular third person onholds · participle present onholding · past onheld · participle past onheld · participle past onholden

  1. dialectalpoeticraretransitiveTo hold on (to).

    She leaped and trembled; still onheld his gripe, And gnawed her waning life.

    1882, Keningale Robert Cook, The king of Kent
    1 more example

    Because of economic downturn, I onhold my dream first and use my lovely office's notebook IBM Thinkpad T60P as my best friend.

    2008, An Apple A day
  2. dialectalintransitivepoeticrareTo hold on.

    Resolved, That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Secondary Committee onheld 8 July, 1918, be and they are hereby confirmed.

    1919, Middlesbrough (England). Education Committee, Proceedings

Origin

  1. Old Englishonhealdan
  2. Middle Englishanhealden“to retain”
  3. Englishonhold

From Middle English anhealden (“to retain”), from Old English onhealdan, anhealdan (“to hold, keep”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian anhoolde (“to stop, persist”), West Frisian oanhâlde (“to apprehend, arrest, detain”), Dutch aanhouden (“to persist, continue, retain”) and onthouden (“to withhold, retain”), German anhalten (“to stop, last, persist”) and enthalten (“to contain, include”). By surface analysis, on- + hold.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

onhold. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onhold

MLA

“onhold.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onhold. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “onhold,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onhold.

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