holt

Alternative forms

• hoult

Etymology

From Middle English holt, from Old English holt (“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-Germanic *hultą (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād- (“timber, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *kola-, *klā- (“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”). Cognate with Scots holt (“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt (“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout (“timber, wood”), Dutch hout (“wood, timber”), German Holz (“wood”), Icelandic holt (“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill (“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Albanian shul (“door latch”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hɒlt/, /həʊlt/

Noun

holt (plural holts)

1. A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book X, ii:

     As when a savage wolf, chas'd from the fold, / To hide his head runs to some holt or wood.

   • Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

     She sent her voice though all the holt Before her, and the park.

   • 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XXXI, line 5

     [the gale] 'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger.

2. The lair of an animal, especially of an otter.

References

• holt in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• holt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• HTOL, Loth, loth

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔlt

Verb

holt

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of hollen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of hollen

Verb

holt

1. Third-person singular present of holen.
2. Second-person plural present of holen.
3. Imperative plural of holen.

Etymology

Old past participle of the verb hal (“to die”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈholt]

Adjective

holt (comparative holtabb, superlative legholtabb)

1. dead

   Holt lelkek ― Dead Souls (a novel by Nikolai Gogol)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɔl̥t/
• Rhymes: -ɔl̥t

  Homophones: hollt

Noun

holt n (genitive singular holts, nominative plural holt)

1. hillock
   • Á Sprengisandi (“On Sprengisandur”) by Grímur Thomsen

     Þey þey! þey þey! þaut í holti tófa,

     þurran vill hún blóði væta góm,

     eða líka einhver var að hóa

     undarlega digrum karlaróm;

     útilegumenn í Ódáðahraun

     eru kannske að smala fé á laun.

     Hush, hush, hush, hush,

     a vixen dashed in the hillock,

     wanting to quench his thirst with blood.

     Or - is it someone calling,

     strangely, with a harsh voice?

     Outlawed men, in the vast waste land

     are secretly guarding their stolen sheep.

2. (antiquated) wood

Etymology

From Old English holt, from Proto-Germanic *hultą.

Noun

holt

1. A small piece of woodland; a woody hill.
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 5-6.

     Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

     Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

2. A corpse.

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hultą.

Noun

holt n

1. wood (the material)
2. tree
3. a wood, a forest

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hultą.

Noun

holt n

1. wood