holdfast, a. and n.
(ˈhəʊldfɑːst, -æ-)
[f. hold fast: see hold v. 2 + fast adv.]
A. adj.
1. That holds fast, lit. and fig.; having a firm hold or grasp; persistent.
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 57 The Pine tree is called hold⁓fast or pitchie tre. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 555 In his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth. 1612 J. Davies Muse's Sacr. (1878) 12/2 With hold-fast armes of euerlasting loue. 1884 Tennyson Becket ii. ii, Only the golden Leopard printed in it Such hold-fast claws. |
† 2. Tenacious of what one has. Obs.
| 1560 Becon New Catech. Wks. 1844 II. 399 So hold fast and wedded to the world, that whatsoever they can get, they so hoard it up. |
B. n.
1. The action or fact of holding fast; firm or sure grasp. lit. and fig.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lviii. 84 The Strawberrie..creepeth alongst the ground, and taketh roote and holdefast. 1628 Prynne Love-lockes 7 They serue..but to giue the Deuill holdfast, to draw vs by them into Hell. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 119 The Nature of Ground as to the hold-fast of Anchors. 1862 C. A. Johns Brit. Birds (1874) 29 Secure of its holdfast, it allows its victim no chance of escape. |
2. Something to which one may hold fast or which affords a secure hold or support. (In some of the fig. uses perh. to be referred to sense 4.)
| 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel i. 8 We will trie farder what sure holdefast he hath to staie him self thereon. 1688 Boyle Final Causes Nat. Things iv. 187 Nature..has furnished the several sorts of teeth with holdfasts, suitable to the stress..they may be put to. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §121 We should then have lost the rock as a Holdfast, and Buttress against the great South-west seas. 1867 F. Francis Angling vi. (1880) 233 The sedge and alder being great holdfasts. |
3. One that holds fast: † a. A stingy or hard-fisted person; a miser. Obs.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 320, I may sooner wring Hercules his clubbe perforce out of his fist, then get mine owne monie out of the hands of this injurious holdfast. 1660 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. i. v. 60 A great Miser and hold-fast. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Hold-fast..is also commonly taken for a griping covetous Wretch. |
b. As name for a dog that holds tenaciously.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iii. 54 Hold fast is the onely Dogge. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 197 ¶3 When I envied the finery of any of my neighbours, [my mother] told me that ‘Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast was a better’. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. xviii. |
4. a. Something that holds fast, binds, supports, or keeps together; spec. a staple, hook, clamp, or bolt securing a part of a building or other structure.
| 1576 Turberv. Venerie 196 You may take them out alive with your holdfasts and clampes. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xiv. xi. 27 The insoluble bond and hold-fast of necessitie, binding the pride of mortall men. 1620–55 I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 46 They united..the Stones together, by certain Ligatures or Holdfasts. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 64 The Hold-fast..to keep the Work fast upon the Bench, while you either Saw, Tennant, Mortess, or sometimes Plain upon it. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Hold-fast, an Iron Hook in shape of the Letter S fix'd in a Wall to support it; also a Joyner's Tool. 1782 Phil. Trans. LXXII. 367 This hip-pole was supported..by an iron-strap, or holdfast. 1803 Trans. Soc. Arts XXI. 349 The pole..passes through the strong holdfasts in the braces. 1842–67 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Holdfast, a long nail, with a flat short head for securing objects to a wall. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 14 The Microscopes are secured to the table by brass holdfasts like those in common use on carpenters' benches. |
b. Bot. An organ for superficial attachment developed by some algæ and fungi.
| 1841 W. H. Harvey Man. Brit. Algæ p. xiv, Most Algæ are, at some period of their growth, found attached to other substances by means of a root, or at least a hold⁓fast. 1895 G. Murray Introd. Study Seaweeds 23 The sculpturing of outward form reaches its highest point in the differentiation..of a root-like holdfast. 1902 Science Jan. 59/2 Kelp hold-fasts, of which none grow in the immediate vicinity, were taken in abundance by the dredge. 1930 H. M. Fitzpatrick Lower Fungi: Phycomycetes iii. 45 In the typical epibiotic species (Rhizidiaceæ) the germ tube of the cytospore acts as a holdfast. 1931 L. Newton Handbk. Brit. Seaweeds p. vi, One of the main factors affecting the distribution of algæ is the securing of a suitable holdfast. 1962 C. J. Alexopoulos Introd. Mycol. (ed. 2) x. 213 The basal part of the hypha [of members of the order Eccrinales] is in the form of a disc⁓like holdfast by means of which the fungus is attached to the host. 1966 F. H. Brightman Oxf. Bk. Flowerless Plants 6/2 The holdfast is disc-shaped, but root-like structures also develop from the base of the stalk. 1971 Where July 202/2 They are the lovely coloured seaweeds or algae, with their interestingly-named parts: the ‘holdfast’ which forms the root, and the ‘thallus’ or fronds which make up the body. |
Hence ˈholdfastness, tenacity, persistency.
| 1869 S. Bowles Our New West 466 A healthy copartnership of American enterprise and enthusiasm, and English solidity and holdfastness. 1897 Harper's Mag. Apr. 724 The Belgians..combining the vivacity and quick wit of the Latin races with a sturdy energy and holdfastness. |