holding

Etymology

noun

1. Something that one owns, especially stocks and bonds.
   Although this survey lists only a small number of representative materials in the Hoover Library's Baltic Collection, a comprehensive view of the library's holdings can be gained from the Hoover Institution's card catalog or its printed equivalent 1980, Joseph D. Dwyer, Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe, page 9
   Italy's right-wing prime minister was about to cure his biggest headache by selling the state's holding in a troubled airline, Alitalia. 2009, The Economist, Law and order in Italy: Trouble with figures
   The defender at third position is supposed to keep the partner informed of his holdings in that suit. 2014, D. K. Acharya, Standard Methods of Contract Bridge Complete, page 378
2. A determination of law made by a court.
3. A tenure; a farm or other estate held of another.
4. (obsolete) Logic; consistency.
5. (obsolete) The burden or chorus of a song.
6. (obsolete, rare) That which holds, binds, or influences; hold; influence; power.
   This is one of the principal holdings of that destructive system, which has endeavoured to unhinge all the virtuous, honourable, and useful connexions in the kingdom. 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, London: J. Dodsley, page 104
7. (in texts about Russia, nonstandard) A holding company, or other kind of company (by back-translation from Russian холдинг (xolding)).

verb

1. present participle and gerund of hold
   They were caught holding hands in the dark.