Library / English Dictionary

BEHOLD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: beheld    , beholden   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

See with attention

Example:

behold Christ!

Synonyms:

behold; lay eyes on

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "behold" is one way to...):

see (perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

They behold the newspapers

They behold themselves

Derivation:

beholder (a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses)

Credits

 Context examples: 

“PRIVATE: for the hands of G. J. Utterson ALONE, and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread,” so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You would have beheld a spectacle then.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Behold the link with Brother Mycroft!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She had long wanted to behold these hidden glories, and to know the Laurence boy, who looked as if he would like to be known, if he only knew how to begin.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Not one, however, started with rapturous wonder on beholding her, no whisper of eager inquiry ran round the room, nor was she once called a divinity by anybody.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Then she is no rule for Mrs. Churchill, who is as thorough a fine lady as any body ever beheld.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The indefatigable bell now sounded for the fourth time: the classes were marshalled and marched into another room to breakfast: how glad I was to behold a prospect of getting something to eat!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

What I endured in so beholding her—but I have no right to wound your feelings by attempting to describe it—I have pained you too much already.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I therefore spent some days in the East End, devised an Arctic expedition, put forth tempting terms for harpooners who would serve under Captain Basil—and behold the result!

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We asked him to come home with us for a day or two: Charles undertook to give him some shooting, and he seemed quite delighted, and, for my part, I thought it was all settled; when behold! on Tuesday night, he made a very awkward sort of excuse; 'he never shot' and he had 'been quite misunderstood,' and he had promised this and he had promised that, and the end of it was, I found, that he did not mean to come.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)