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
Reuel Marc Gerecht, Foreign Affairs, 7 Sep. 2023
Apologizing for playing a part in your feeling so beholden.
—Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 24 Jan. 2024
My natural dishwater hue is now beholden as a covetable blonde shade on the internet.
—Shelby Wax, Allure, 29 Feb. 2024
The appointment was a major concession for McCarthy, but, from his perspective, turning an insurgent into a beholden ally was a matter of survival.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2023
See all Example Sentences for beholden 
Dictionary Entries Near beholden
Cite this Entry
“Beholden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beholden. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
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beholden
adjective
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