different between focus vs hold

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??.k?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?fo?.k?s/
• Rhymes: -??k?s

Noun

focus (countable and uncountable, plural foci or focuses or focusses)

1. (countable, optics) A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

2. (countable, geometry) A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
3. (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

4. (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

5. (uncountable) Concentration of attention.

6. (countable, seismology) The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions (underneath the epicentre).

7. (graphical user interface) The indicator of the currently active element in a user interface.

8. (linguistics) The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.
9. An object used in casting a magic spell.
   • 2004, Marian Singer, Trish MacGregor, The Only Wiccan Spell Book You'll Ever Need

     Candles, in fact, are an essential ingredient in many spells. They can be used as either the focus of the spell or as a component that sets the spell's overall mood and tone.

   • 2014, Kristen S. Walker, Witch Gate (page 180)

     I ran through what I knew about spells from Mom and other witchcraft sources, but nothing matched what I was used to seeing in her magic work. Usually she used herbs and other plants as a focus for the spell.

Derived terms

• focus hunting

Translations

Verb

focus (third-person singular simple present focuses or focusses, present participle focusing or focussing, simple past and past participle focused or focussed)

1. (intransitive, followed by on or upon) To concentrate during a task.

2. (transitive) To direct attention, effort, or energy to a particular audience or task.

3. (transitive) To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.
4. (transitive) To adjust (a lens, an optical instrument) in order to position an image with respect to the focal plane.

   You'll need to focus the microscope carefully in order to capture the full detail of this surface.

5. (intransitive) To concentrate one’s attention.

   If you're going to beat your competitors, you need to focus.

6. (computing, graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus to (a visual element), so that it receives subsequent input.

   The text box won't receive the user's keystrokes unless you explicitly focus it.

Usage notes

The spellings focusses, focussing, focussed are more common in Commonwealth English than in American English, but in both varieties they are less common than the spellings focuses, focusing, focused.

Derived terms

• focus group
• in focus
• out of focus
• soft focus

Related terms

• focal

Translations

Anagrams

• Fusco

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus. Compare the inherited doublet foc.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?f?.kus/

Noun

focus m (plural focus)

1. focus

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin focus. The figurative sense probably derives from English focus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fo?.k?s/
• Hyphenation: fo?cus

Noun

focus m (plural focussen)

1. (optics, physics) focus

   Synonym: brandpunt

2. (figuratively) focus, centre

3. (linguistics) focus

Derived terms

• focaal
• focusafstand
• focussen

Related terms

• foyer

Descendants

• Afrikaans: fokus

References

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin focus, whence also Italian fuoco (an inherited doublet).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?.kus/
• Hyphenation: fò?cus

Noun

focus m (invariable)

1. focus (all senses)

Latin

Etymology

• The origin is uncertain. Usually connected with Old Armenian ??? (boc?).
• Some connect this along with faci?s, fac?tus, fax to Proto-Indo-European *b?eh?- (“to shine”). In that case, cognate at the root level with Sanskrit ???? (bh??ti), Ancient Greek ????? (phaín?, “to shine”), etc.
• In explaining how Kepler discovered the elliptical orbits, Nicholas Mee provides this explanation:

"One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points." (Gravity, 2014, p. 74)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?fo.kus/, [?f?k?s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fo.kus/, [?f??kus]

Noun

focus m (genitive foc?); second declension

1. fireplace, hearth
2. firepan, coal pan, brazier
3. (figuratively) house, family
4. (Vulgar Latin) fire

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Derived terms

Related terms

• focillare
• foculare

Synonyms

• (fire): ignis

Descendants

References

• focus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• focus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• focus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• focus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• focus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• focus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: h?ld, IPA^(key): /h??ld/, [h???d]
• (General American) enPR: h?ld, IPA^(key): /ho?ld/, [ho??d]
• Homophone: holed
• Rhymes: -??ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English holden, from Old English healdan, from Proto-Germanic *haldan? (“to tend, herd”), maybe from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”) (compare Latin celer (“quick”), Tocharian B kälts (“to goad, drive”), Ancient Greek ????? (kéll?, “to drive”), Sanskrit ????? (kaláyati, “he impels”)). Cognate to West Frisian hâlde, Low German holden, holen, Dutch houden, German halten, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål holde, Norwegian Nynorsk halda.

Verb

hold (third-person singular simple present holds, present participle holding, simple past held, past participle held or (archaic) holden)

1. (transitive) To grasp or grip.
2. (transitive) To contain or store.

3. (heading) To maintain or keep to a position or state.
   1. (transitive) To have and keep possession of something.
   2. (transitive) To reserve.

   3. (transitive) To cause to wait or delay.

   4. (transitive) To detain.

   5. (intransitive, copulative) To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person).

      • The rule holds in land as well as all other commodities.

   6. (intransitive, copulative) To keep oneself in a particular state.
   7. (transitive) To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.
      • 1646, Richard Crashaw, Vpon the Death of Mr. Herrys

        Death! what do'st? O, hold thy blow.
   8. (transitive) To bear, carry, or manage.
   9. (intransitive, chiefly imperative) Not to move; to halt; to stop.
   10. (intransitive) Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.
   11. To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function.

4. (heading) To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
   1. (transitive) To maintain, to consider, to opine.
      • 1776, Thomas Jefferson et al., United States Declaration of Independence:

        We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
   2. (transitive) To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.

   3. To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.

      • Hold not thy peace, and be not still.
   4. To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.

      • Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.
   5. (archaic) To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.
5. (tennis, transitive, intransitive) To win one's own service game.
6. To take place, to occur.
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford 2010, p. 9:

     He came into the hall where the wedding-festival had held […].

7. To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
8. (archaic) To derive right or title.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     My crown is absolute, and holds of none.

   • 1817, William Hazlitt, The Round Table

     His imagination holds immediately from nature.

9. (imperative) In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.

10. (slang, intransitive) To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
    • 1933, Goat Laven, Rough Stuff: The Life Story of a Gangster (page 122)

      […] first thing clients would say to me would be 'Are you holding?' I'd say yes if we had our supply and no if it was dangerous.

Synonyms

• (grasp or grip): clasp, grasp, grip; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (have and keep possession of something): own; See also Thesaurus:possess
• (not to move): See also Thesaurus:stop
• (not to give way): See also Thesaurus:persevere
• (restrain oneself): See also Thesaurus:desist
• (take place): happen; See also Thesaurus:happen

Antonyms

• release

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

hold (plural holds)

1. A grasp or grip.

   Keep a firm hold on the handlebars.

2. An act or instance of holding.

   Can I have a hold of the baby?

3. A place where animals are held for safety
4. An order that something is to be reserved or delayed, limiting or preventing how it can be dealt with.

   Senator X placed a hold on the bill, then went to the library and placed a hold on a book.

   • 2008, R. Michael Gordon, The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way (page 98)

     Because there were no “launch commit criteria” regarding surface booster temperatures that might cause a hold on the launch, the ice team did not report the temperatures to the launch controllers.

5. Something reserved or kept.

   We have a hold here for you.

6. Power over someone or something.
7. The ability to persist.
8. The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair.
9. (wrestling) A position or grip used to control the opponent.

   He got him in a tight hold and pinned him to the mat.

10. (exercise) An exercise involving holding a position for a set time
11. (gambling) The percentage the house wins on a gamble, the house or bookmaker's hold.

    The House Hold on the game is 10,000, this is the amount of decision or risk the house wishes to assume.

12. (gambling) The wager amount, the total hold.

    As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015

13. (tennis) An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken.
14. The part of an object one is intended to grasp, or anything one can use for grasping with hands or feet.
    • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

      So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold.
15. A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin.
16. (video games, dated) A pause facility.
    • 1983, New Generation Software, Knot in 3D (video game instruction leaflet)

      A hold facility is available; H holds, and S restarts.

    • 1987?, Imagine Software, Legend of Kage (video game instruction leaflet)

      SCREEN 5 — Perhaps the toughest — going like the clappers sometimes works but generally you'll have to be smarter than that. If things get a little too hectic and you don't even have time to reach the HOLD key, try taking a short rest below the top of the stairs.

17. The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy.
    • 2003, Daniel Jackson, Paul Fulberg, Sonic Branding: An Essential Guide to the Art and Science of Sonic Branding, Palgrave Macmillan ?ISBN, page 6

      Given that there is an average on-hold time of more than five minutes while enquiries are being dealt with, the telephone hold system provided the best opportunity.

    • 2005, Lorraine Grubbs-West, Lessons in Loyalty: How Southwest Airlines Does it : an Insider's View, CornerStone Leadership Inst ?ISBN, page 56

      Even the "on-hold" messages on Southwest's telephone system are humorous, ensuring anyone inconvenienced by the hold is entertained.

    • 2012, Tanner Ezell, Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8: Expert Administration Cookbook, Packt Publishing Ltd ?ISBN

      Note. After the device downloads its new configuration file, we can test placing a call on hold and the generic hold music will be heard.

18. (baseball) A statistic awarded to a relief pitcher who is not still pitching at the end of the game and who records at least one out and maintains a lead for his team.
19. (aviation) A region of airspace reserved for aircraft being kept in a holding pattern.

Synonyms

(exercise): isometric exercise

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• behold

References

Etymology 2

Alteration (due to hold) of hole. Cognate with Dutch hol (“hole, cave, den, cavity, cargo hold”), Dutch holte (“cavity, hollow, den”).

Noun

hold (plural holds)

1. (nautical, aviation) The cargo area of a ship or aircraft (often holds or cargo hold).

   Put that in the hold.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English hold, holde, from Old English hold (“gracious, friendly, kind, favorable, true, faithful, loyal, devout, acceptable, pleasant”), from Proto-Germanic *hulþaz (“favourable, gracious, loyal”), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to tend, incline, bend, tip”). Cognate with German hold (“gracious, friendly, sympathetic, grateful”), Danish and Swedish huld (“fair, kindly, gracious”), Icelandic hollur (“faithful, dedicated, loyal”), German Huld (“grace, favour”).

Adjective

hold (comparative more hold, superlative most hold)

1. (obsolete) Gracious; friendly; faithful; true.

Anagrams

• dhol, hodl

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?h?l?]

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hald (“grip, power, hold”). Also see holde (“to hold”).

Noun

hold n (singular definite holdet, plural indefinite hold)

1. team (group of persons working or playing together)
2. class (group of students taught together)
3. distance, side (only with the prepositions på or fra and an adjective)
4. truth
5. pain (in the muscles)
6. (rare) hold

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

hold

1. imperative of holde

German

Etymology

From Middle High German holt, from Old High German hold, from Proto-Germanic *hulþaz. Cognates include Gothic ???????????????????? (hulþs, “clement”) and Old Norse hollr ( > Danish huld).

Pronunciation

Adjective

hold (comparative holder, superlative am holdesten)

1. (archaic, poetic) friendly, comely, graceful
   • 1907, Carl Spitteler, Die Mädchenfeinde, Siebentes Kapitel, Beim Narren?tudenten

     • Um aber auf deinen holden Kadettengeneral zurückzukommen, ?o will ich dir, weil du mir dein Geheimnis anvertraut ha?t, auch etwas Geheimnisvolles verraten […]

Declension

Further reading

• “hold” in Duden online

Hungarian

Etymology

From Proto-Uralic *ku?e. Cognates include Hungarian hó (“month”), Finnish and Estonian kuu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?hold]
• Hyphenation: hold
• Rhymes: -old

Noun

hold (plural holdak)

1. moon, natural satellite
2. unit of surface area, originally meant the same as acre, has different kinds ranging from 3500 m² to 8400 m²
3. (attributive usage) lunar

Usage notes

Some astronomical and geographical terms have both a lowercase (common noun) and a capitalized (proper noun) form. For föld (“ground, soil; Earth”)??Föld (“Earth”), hold (“moon, satellite; Moon”)??Hold (“our Moon”), and nap (“day; sun; Sun”)??Nap (“our Sun”), the lowercase forms are used in the everyday sense and the capitalized forms in the astronomical sense. In other similar pairs, the former refers to generic sense, and the latter specifies the best known referent: egyenlít? (“equator”)??Egyenlít? (“Equator”), naprendszer (“solar system”)??Naprendszer (“Solar System”), and tejút (“galaxy”, literally “milky way”, but galaxis and galaktika are more common)??Tejút (“Milky Way”).^[5][6][7]

Declension

Derived terms

• holdas

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse hold, from Proto-Germanic *huld?, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-, *kwol-. Cognate with Swedish hull.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [h?lt]
• Rhymes: -?lt

Noun

hold n (genitive singular holds, no plural)

1. flesh
   • Isaiah 40 (Icelandic, English)

     Heyr, einhver segir: "Kalla þú!" Og ég svara: "Hvað skal ég kalla?" "Allt hold er gras og allur yndisleikur þess sem blóm vallarins. Grasið visnar, blómin fölna, þegar Drottinn andar á þau. Sannlega, mennirnir eru gras. Grasið visnar, blómin fölna, en orð Guðs vors stendur stöðugt eilíflega."

     A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Declension

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English hold.

Adjective

hold

1. friendly, faithful

Noun

hold

1. carcase, flesh

Related terms

• holdeste, unhold, holdelike, holdoþ

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

hold

1. imperative of holde

Derived terms

• (of noun) dyrehold
• (of noun) kosthold
• (of noun) husdyrhold

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xold/, [ho?d]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *huld?, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-, *kwol-. Cognates include Old Norse hold (“flesh”) (Icelandic hold, Swedish hull), and (from Indo-European) Old Irish colainn, Welsh celain.

Noun

hold n (nominative plural hold)

1. dead body; carcass

Declension

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *hulþaz, a variant on a root meaning ‘lean, incline’ (compare Old English heald, hieldan).

Cognates include Old Frisian hold, Old Saxon hold, Old High German hold (German hold), Old Norse hollr (Danish huld, Swedish huld), Gothic ???????????????????? (hulþs).

Adjective

hold (comparative holdra, superlative holdost) (+ dative)

1. gracious, loyal, kind

Declension

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hulþaz

Adjective

hold

1. friendly , loyal

Derived terms

• huld?
• hulda, holda

Descendants

• German: hold

Spanish

Noun

hold m (plural holds)

1. (baseball) hold