HOLDFAST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Holdfast

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/hˈoʊlfˌæst/ Listen

noun

Holdfast n.

Something used to secure and hold in place something else, as a long flat-headed nail, a catch a hook, a clinch, a clamp, etc.; hence, a support. "His holdfast was gone."

(Bot.) A conical or branching body, by which a seaweed is attached to its support, and differing from a root in that it is not specially absorbent of moisture.

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Etymology of 'Holdfast'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Holdfast" Quotes from Famous Books

... Panky may even have deluded himself with the hope that when it came to a pinch the Germans had deemed it best to give up their desperate intention of defending the ford to the last gasp. Josh knew better, because he understood the holdfast nature of the Teutons better than did his chums. And he was mentally figuring on just when the bitter blast would break forth that was going to mow down those valiant men with the red trousers and the blue tunics rushing pell-mell ...

— The Big Five Motorcycle Boys on the Battle Line - Or, With the Allies in France • Ralph Marlow

... there, as the force of the wind or the flow of the current may carry them. If my life is to be steadied, there must not only be a strong hand at the tiller, but some outward object which shall be for me the point of aim and the point of rest. No man can steady his life except by clinging to a holdfast without himself. Some of us look for that stay in the fluctuations and fleetingnesses of creatures; and some of us are wiser and saner, and look for it in the steadfastness of the unchanging God. The ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren