▪ I. holt1
(həʊlt)
Also 4–7 holte, 5 halte, 6 Sc. hout, 6–7 hoult.
[OE. holt = OFris., OS. holt, MDu., Du. hout wood (as material); OHG., MHG., Ger. holz wood, a wood, ON. holt wood, copse, now in Icel. ‘a rough stony hill or ridge’:—OTeut. *hulto-:—pre-Teut. *k{ldotbl}dó-: cf. OSlav. klada beam, rafter, stump, timber, Gr. κλάδος twig, OIr. caill, coill (-ll from -ld) wood.]
† 1. Wood, timber. (OE. only, and doubtful.)
| a 900 Cynewulf Juliana 577 in Exeter Bk., He læmen fæt biwyrcan het wundor-cræfte wiᵹes womum and wudubeamum holte bi[h]lænan. |
2. A wood; a copse. Now poet. and dial. (Occurs in many place-names and derived surnames.)
| Beowulf (Z.) 2598 Hy on holt buᵹon. c 1000 ælfric Gram. ix. (Z.) 59 Nemus, holt. c 1205 Lay. 20124 Þenne he cumeð of holte. c 1345 Orpheo 207 Now wol y be, And wonne there in holtys hore. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 302 (351) These holtes and these hayes That han in wynter ded ben and dreye. a 1450 Le Morte Arth. 3029 A chapelle he lette make By-twene two hye holtys hore. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 66 Woddis, forestis, wyth nakyt bewis blout, Stud strypyt of thair weyd in every hout. 1600 Fairfax Tasso iii. vi. 7 As the winde in hoults and shady greaues, A murmur makes, among the boughes and leaues. 1664 Evelyn Sylva (1776) 222 In the fresher bottoms and sides of hills, hoults, and in hedge rows. 1695 Bp. Patrick Comm. Gen. 241 A Holt or Grove of Oakes. 1796 Scott Wild Huntsman xxii, The timorous prey Scours moss and moor, and holt and hill. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 676 Narrow breadth to left and right Of wither'd holt or tilth or pasturage. 1887 Kent Gloss., Holt, a wood. |
b. A plantation, esp. of osiers. local.
| 1611 Cotgr., Islaye,..a hoult, or plot wherein Oziers, or twig-withies grow. 1795 Trans. Soc. Arts XIII. 142 What has been done towards making these plantations or holts? 1813 T. Martin Circle Mech. Arts, Basket-making 67 In the fens, many holts (as they are provincially called), or plantations of osiers are raised. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Holt, a small grove or plantation. We have gooseberry-holts, cherry-holts, nut-holts, osier-holts, &c. |
3. A wooded hill.
[This sense may have arisen from a misunderstanding of ‘holtis hie’ in ME. poems; but cf. Icel. holt rough hill.]
| 1567 Turberv. Songs & Sonn. (T.), Yee that frequent the hilles, And highest holtes of all. 1757 Dyer Fleece ii. 382 Whose rustic muse O'er heath and craggy holt her wing display'd. 1825 Brockett, Holt, a peaked hill covered with wood. 1848 Lytton Harold vii. ii, Let his feet..climb the green holts of England. |
† 4. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1611 Cotgr., Heulet, a Hoult, or little Isle cut out of the land of purpose to be ouerflowed euerie tyde by the sea; that of the froth thereof..salt may be made. |
5. Comb., as holt side; † holt-felster, i.e. holt-feller, a woodcutter; † holt-wood, a wood.
| a 1000 Phœnix 171 in Exeter Bk., Ðear he heanne beam on holt-wuda wunað. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 742 Hiȝe hillez on vche a halue, & holt wodez vnder. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1350 The Troiens..Fleddon in fere..ouer hilles and hethes into holte woddes. a 1678 Marvell Appleton Ho. 538 But most the hewel's wonders are, Who here has the holtfelster's care. |
▪ II. holt2
[An unexplained phonetic variant of hold n.1, which is still so pronounced in the midland (and some southern) counties and regionally in the United States.]
1. Hold, grasp, grip; support, sustenance. dial. and U.S. colloq. Cf. a-holt (s.v. a-hold adv. phr.).
| c 1375 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 241 Alas! helle me hath in holt in ruyde; Ȝe deuel in pine for worldes pride. c 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. lix. (Gibbs MS.) lf. 114 Þe..strengeste holt and comforte þat þay myghten haue. 1619 R. Harris Drunkard's Cup 19 Yet would he not leaue his holte. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 60 [He cried] ‘lay holt there; lay holt, every one o' you’, throwing the reins behind him, into the carriage. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Holt, for hold. Ex. ‘Death has got holt of him.’ 1881 Leicester Gloss. s.v., When they'n wanst took holt. Mod. midl. dial. Ketch 'olt on 'im! 1898 E. N. Westcott David Harum xxii. 199 Of course you've heard the things that some folk say of him, an'..they got some holt on your mind. 1909 R. A. Wason Happy Hawkins iv. 52 He'd 'a' been killed that trip if you hadn't taken holt when you did. 1930 Amer. Speech V. 151 Catch holt of, grab. ‘Catch holt of my hand, quickly.’ 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet iv. i. 313 ‘Grab a holt,’ the Texan said. Eck grasped the wire also. |
† 2. A stronghold; = hold n.1 10. Obs.
| 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 11/1 Building a holt or castell vpon a certeine rockie hill. 1600 Holland Livy xxxi. xxx. 791 Our ancestors inhabited those small holts [castellis]. Ibid. xl. xxii. 1075 They wasted and destroied their holts. |
3. A place of refuge or abode; a lurking-place; an animal's lair or den, esp. that of an otter: = hold n.1 9.
| 1590 Sir T. Cockaine Treat. Hunt. D ij b, An Otter..before he come to the holt where he lyeth. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1812) I. 120 [The otter] forms before it reaches the top several holts, or lodges. 1885 Badm. Libr., Hunting 314 An old otter going for a strong holt. 1890 O. Crawfurd Round Calend. in Portugal 24 The others..frighten the trout from their ‘holts’ behind stones. |