take hold

idiomatic phrase

1

: to grasp, grip, or seize something

took hold and hung on tight

—often used with of

take hold of the railing

… she took hold of his arm with both her hands, and looked up eagerly—oh, with such terrible eagerness!—into his face.

—Anthony Trollope

—often used figuratively

As word of the subpoenas spread … confusion and hysteria took hold of the social set …

—Bob Colacello

I did not want Merlin to retire from the job until I was ready to take hold of it effectively myself …

—Mark Twain

2

: to become effective, established, or popular

The change in the law has not yet taken hold.

… a swath of land that has been spared from lava flows long enough that rich vegetation has had a chance to take hold.

—G. Brad Lewis

… here in central California the French aesthetic has recently taken hold.

—Rebecca Coffey

Examples of take hold in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Frostbite can take hold in minutes in these conditions. —CBS News, 23 Jan. 2026

Dante Liberato was somewhere around Olathe, Colorado, on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. —Frederick Dreier, Outside, 22 Jan. 2026

Back in 2025, soaring rice prices and careless comments cost then farm minister Taku Eto his job and reportedly prompted former prime minister Shigeru Ishiba to take personal responsibility for lowering prices as a rice shortage took hold. —Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2026

Yet the fact that fascistic tendencies are stirring doesn’t mean fascism has taken hold. —Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1530, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for take hold

• copyhold
• decontrolled
• hundredfold
• manifold
• marigold
• oversold
• petioled
• sevenfold
• stranglehold
• subthreshold
• thousandfold
• uncontrolled