beholden
adjective
Did you know?
To behold something is to perceive or gaze upon it—therefore, to be beholden is to be seen or observed, right? Not so fast! It’s true that behold and beholden share the same Old English roots, and also that beholden originated as the past participle of behold, whose original meaning was “to hold or retain.” But the two words weaved and wended their way down different paths into present-day English. Behold had settled into its “perceive, see” use by the 12th century. Meanwhile, beholden was called into duty as the “indebted, obligated” adjective we know today by the 14th century, as evidenced by its appearance in the Middle-English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the ensuing years, beholden has continued to describe people who are obligated to others (often for a favor or gift), as well as people or things that are in figurative debt due to aid or inspiration, as in “many contemporary books and films are beholden to old Arthurian legends.”
Examples of beholden in a Sentence
Spin Staff, SPIN, 17 June 2026
This reader hopes that will be a rebuttal to all the dubious America 250 content flooding orgs beholden to the neutered NEA.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 16 June 2026
The Guardians are once again beholden to the platoon advantage.
—Zack Meisel, New York Times, 11 June 2026
It’s been beholden to the performance of big tech stocks like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.
—Stan Choe, Fortune, 9 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for beholden
Cite this Entry
“Beholden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beholden. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
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beholden
adjective
