behold
English
Etymology
From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan (“to hold, have, occupy, possess, guard, preserve, contain, belong, keep, observe, consider, behold, look at, gaze on, see, signify, avail, effect, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave”), from Proto-Germanic *bihaldaną (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- + hold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian behoolde (“to keep”), Dutch behouden (“to keep, restrain, preserve”), German behalten (“to keep, restrain, remember”), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Danish and Norwegian beholde (“to keep”) and Swedish behålla (“to keep”).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bɪˈhəʊld/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GenAm" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bɪˈhoʊld/
Audio (US): (file)
Verb
behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)
- (transitive) To see or look at, esp. appreciatively; to descry, look upon.
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:
- […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
- The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:
- (intransitive) To look.
- (transitive) To contemplate.
Usage notes
Rarely used in informal speech. The past participle beholden now has a meaning detached from the other forms of the word.
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:look
Derived terms
Translations
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Interjection
behold
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:lo
Translations
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References
- “behold”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “behold”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Danish
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle Low German beholt, behalt.
Noun
behold (indeclinable)
Derived terms
Etymology 2
See beholde (“to keep”)
Verb
behold
Norwegian Bokmål
Verb
behold
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms prefixed with be-
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English intransitive verbs
- English interjections
- English irregular verbs
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Danish terms derived from Middle Low German
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish terms with archaic senses
- Danish non-lemma forms
- Danish verb forms
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål verb forms