behold
verb /bɪˈhəʊld/
/bɪˈhəʊld/
(old use or literary)Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they behold | /bɪˈhəʊld/ /bɪˈhəʊld/ |
| he / she / it beholds | /bɪˈhəʊldz/ /bɪˈhəʊldz/ |
| past simple beheld | /bɪˈheld/ /bɪˈheld/ |
| past participle beheld | /bɪˈheld/ /bɪˈheld/ |
| -ing form beholding | /bɪˈhəʊldɪŋ/ /bɪˈhəʊldɪŋ/ |
- behold somebody/something to look at or see somebody/something
- Her face was a joy to behold.
- They beheld a bright star shining in the sky.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryBehold is used with these nouns as the object:- sight
Word OriginOld English bihaldan, from bi- ‘thoroughly’ + haldan ‘to hold’. Parallel Germanic words have the sense ‘maintain, retain’; the notion of ‘looking’ is found only in English.
Idioms
lo and behold
- (humorous) used for calling attention to a surprising or annoying thing
- As soon as we went out, lo and behold, it began to rain.