hold with

English

Verb

hold with (third-person singular simple present holds with, present participle holding with, simple past and past participle held with)

1. (always in the negative) To approve of, to condone.

   I don't hold with that sort of thing!

   • 1907, E. M. Forster, The Longest Journey‎^[1]:

     "Did you have any lunch?"
     "I don't hold with regular meals."
     "Did you have a book?"
     "I don't hold with books in the open. None of the older men read."
     "Did you commune with yourself, or don't you hold with that?"

   • 1937, Peter Cheyney, Dames Don't Care, Pan Books, 1960 edition, page 100:

     " […] I like Henrietta, but I don’t hold with murder […] ”

   • 1982 October 7, Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾‎^[2], →ISBN, page 58:

     While I washed up I told Bert about my parents getting a divorce. He said he didn’t hold with divorce. He said he was married for thirty-five miserable years so why should anybody else get away with it?

2. (US) To agree with someone (to be in harmony about an opinion or perspective).

   I hold with Aristotle on ethics.

   • 1903, Michael L. Rodkinson, chapter IV, in Tractate Shabbat‎^[3], a modern English translation from the 5th century Mishanic Hebrew:

     It is clear that Rabh holds with the first teacher and Samuel holds with R. Simeon b. Gamaliel, but whom does R. Assi's opinion agree with?

   • 2018, Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind‎^[4]:

     [Psychologist Bill Richards came to believe] that consciousness is a property of the universe, not brains. On this question, he holds with Henri Bergson, the French philosopher, who conceived of the human mind as a kind of radio receiver

Further reading

• “hold with”, in Collins English Dictionary.