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

With England and Scotland qualifying for the Euros, football fever is taking hold of the two countries. —Irenie Forshaw, The Week Uk, theweek, 17 June 2024

Drugs, alcohol and domestic violence took hold of him, rewriting the narrative of his career. —Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 1 June 2024

But as progressive students extended this justification to even conventional conservatives and some civil liberties advocates, a more generalized intolerance took hold. —Charles Homans Gabra Zackman Anna Diamond Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 29 May 2024

But after the January 5 cataclysm, the view that the board would pick a newcomer took hold, and Wall Street and the business press buzzed that Gitlin appeared the ideal choice. —Shawn Tully, Fortune, 29 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1530, in the meaning defined at sense 1