holding
part of speech
noun (a holding, holdings); verb, -ing form of "hold" (hold, holds, held, holding)
meaning for a pupil
1) Holding is the -ing form of "hold": having something in your hands or arms, or keeping it in place. tree →
2) A holding is land or property that someone owns, like a small farm. tree →
3) Holdings are things like money, shares or books that a person or group owns or keeps. tree →
4) In sport, holding is an unfair move where you grab another player. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and stories: holding hands, holding your breath, holding on. In maths: a jug holding 2 litres (capacity). In business and history: land holdings. In safety: "Keep holding the rail". Phrases: holding hands, holding on, holding up, holding still, holding area.
examples
- She is holding a kitten. tree →
- Keep holding the rail on the stairs. tree →
- We walked holding hands. tree →
- The jug is holding 2 litres of water. tree →
- He was holding his breath under water. tree →
- The family has a small holding of land by the river. tree →
- The library's holdings include rare maps. tree →
- The referee called holding against the player. tree →
- "What's the matter?" he asked, holding her tighter. tree →
note
Verb is irregular: hold, held, held. Noun "holding" (land) is countable. "Smallholding" (UK) = small farm. In maths, "holding" often tells capacity or what someone has now.
In the corpora
- Loose brushwork, holding the brush further from the bristles, often makes paintings look more alive.
- Weaver ants sew leaves into nests, holding their own larvae like glue sticks that spin silk.
- Small ants can carry many times their own weight, and weaver ants were photographed holding about 100 times their weight upside down.
- The first witness is the Hatter, still holding his teacup and bread-and-butter.
- After that the Rat walks at the back holding Toad firmly by the shoulder.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «holding» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.