beholden

English

WOTD – 10 February 2016

Alternative forms

• beholding (obsolete)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English beholden, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English behealdan. Cognate with behold in the otherwise unrecorded sense “bound”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈhəʊldən/
• IPA^(key): /bɨˈhoʊldən/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧hol‧den
• Rhymes: -əʊldən

Adjective

beholden (not comparable)

1. Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged.

   From an early age, I had decided I wanted to be beholden to no one.

   • 2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist‎^[1]:

     There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees.

2. Bound by external expectations, such as fashion or morality.
   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2]:

     But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments [sic], seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).

Derived terms

• beholdenness
• unbeholden

Translations

obligated, bound by moral obligation

• Bulgarian: задължен (bg) (zadǎlžen), признателен (bg) (priznatelen)
• Dutch: verplicht (nl),schatplichtig (nl)
• French: redevable (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: verpflichtet (de), gebunden (de)
• Russian: обя́занный (ru) m (objázannyj), призна́тельный (ru) m (priznátelʹnyj)
• Spanish: comprometido (es)