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Hold

.

(Anglo-Saxon, heald-an, to hold.)

He is not fit to hold the candle to him. He is very inferior. The allusion is to link-boys who held candles in theatres and other places of night amusement.

“Others say that Mr. Handel

To Bonocini canʹt hold a candle.”


To cry hold. Stop. The allusion is to the old military tournaments; when the umpires wished to stop the contest they cried outHold!”


“Lay on Macduff,


And damnʹd be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!ʹ”


 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Hogarth (William)
Hogen Mogen
Hogmanay, Hogmena, or Hagmena
Hogshead
Hoi Polloi (The)
Hoist
Hoity-toity
Hoky or Hockey Cake
Holborn
Hold
Hold
Hold Forth (To)
Hold Hard
Hold In (To)
Hold Off!
Hold On
Hold Out
Hold Water (To)
Hold One Guilty (To)
Hold One in Hand (To)
Hold One’s Own (To)