Hold
Hold verb - To reach for and take hold of by embracing with the fingers or arms.
Usage example: please hold my arm on these slippery stairs
Pass
Pass verb - To put (something) into the possession or safekeeping of another.
Usage example: pass your forms to the department head once they're filled out
How words are described
| close | close hold | close pass |
| high | high hold | high pass |
| long | long hold | long pass |
| short | short hold | short pass |
| Other adjectives: single, simple, empty, small, actual, entire, massive, huge, little, final, last. | ||
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
-
While on their way, they pass a graveyard, one of them fails to hold his breath, and they accidentally inhale the spirit of a mass murderer, Klaus Van Hausen.
Source: Film / Hold Your Breath -
Things like vacuum cleaners and jet engines work because they let the air pass straight through them instead of trying to hold it all in.
Source: Vacuum Mouth - Suicide Mission: The Cynians army attempt to hold the Burgids at the Brooler pass was guaranteed to kill them all.
Source: Literature / An Army Of The Dead
Cite this Source
Pass and Hold. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 15, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/hold/pass
Hold & Pass. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/hold/pass>.
Pass or Hold. 2016. Accessed August 15, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/hold/pass.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "hold" and "pass" have occurred on timeline