to hold fast
11
5.5
- phrasal verb
- /hoʊld fæst/
:
mantenerse firme
- The president also said that Reagan was a man who held fast to his principles.
- hold fast to that notion
- still hold fast
But here he held fast and the Allied forces could not take the railway.
- But here he held fast and the Allied forces could not take the railway.
- Only the past rushing into the future, trying to hold fast, is to be swept aside.
- And he says, hold fast to the things which you to seem to you seem best.
- But in these movements, he says self consciousness holds fast to the simple unity of objective being and the self, a unity which is its genus.
Examples
-
Fanny Wright held fast to her ideas, and thus became a voice beyond her time.
Fiction book (1993) -
Courage faces fear and finds resolve, and so must we hold fast to our purpose in a dangerous and skeptical world.
-
Many teachers hold fast to the ideal of teaching as they were taught.
Academic text (2009) -
Meeting after meeting ended with nothing accomplished as each side held fast to its position.
Academic text (2009) -
So, through good times and bad... famine and feast... the villagers held fast to their traditions.
-
We must hold fast and root-out the false prophets.
-
Courage faces fear and finds resolve, and so must we hold fast to our purpose in a dangerous and skeptical world.
-
Meeting after meeting ended with nothing accomplished as each side held fast to its position.
Synonyms
∞
3.5
To stay loyal to someone or a group
343
3.0
Keep doing something without changing it, for example following a plan
341
3.6
Keep doing or supporting something even when it is difficult
240
2.1
To hold on tightly to someone or something and not let go
180
3.0
To keep something and not let it go
173
3.3
To keep trying and not give up when things are hard
139
3.7
To refuse to give up until you get what you want
111
3.3
To hold tightly to something or keep believing something strongly in hard times
47
3.6
To stay with and support someone in hard times
27
6.7
To keep a feeling or idea for a long time
25
3.5
To stay loyal to a promise, plan or belief
17
5.2
To stick firmly to a surface such as glass or plastic
9
4.5
To refuse to change your opinion or decision despite pressure
7
7.5
To stay very close to someone or something, often for support
To keep trying to reach a goal even when things are hard
Antonyms
How Committed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'hold' (to grasp or keep) with 'fast' (firmly); together they mean to hold firmly or to remain firmly committed, covering both the physical and figurative senses. This is a regular compositional verb + particle/adverb pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb hold fast comes from sailors who had to hold a rope so it stayed fast, meaning 'firmly fixed', during a storm. That's why today it means 'to stay firmly attached' or 'to remain committed'.