GET HOLD OF

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does get hold of mean? 

• GET HOLD OF (verb)
  The verb GET HOLD OF has 3 senses:

1. get into one's hands, take physically

2. be in or establish communication with

3. affect

  Familiarity information: GET HOLD OF used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GET HOLD OF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get into one's hands, take physically

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

get hold of; take

Context example:

Can you take this bag, please

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "get hold of"):

clutch; prehend; seize (take hold of; grab)

seize (take or capture by force)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The children get hold of the ball

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be in or establish communication with

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

contact; get hold of; get through; reach

Context example:

He never contacted his children after he emigrated to Australia

Hypernyms (to "get hold of" is one way to...):

communicate; intercommunicate (transmit thoughts or feelings)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "get hold of"):

ping (send a message from one computer to another to check whether it is reachable and active)

ping (contact, usually in order to remind of something)

raise (establish radio communications with)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Affect

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

clutch; get hold of; seize

Context example:

He was seized with a dreadful disease

Hypernyms (to "get hold of" is one way to...):

overcome; overpower; overtake; overwhelm; sweep over; whelm (overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

 Context examples 

I'm going to get hold of Saleeby.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Here's a scrape! Do let me bring that wicked boy over to explain and be lectured. I can't rest till I get hold of him." And Jo made for the door again.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Try to get hold of my horse's bridle and lead him to me: you are not afraid?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it difficult to get hold of,” replied Lestrade with some warmth.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But mama kept it from her, and was always letting Betsey get hold of it; and the end of it would be that Betsey would spoil it, and get it for her own, though mama had promised her that Betsey should not have it in her own hands.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

What nonsense one talks, Miss Woodhouse, when hard at work, if one talks at all;—your real workmen, I suppose, hold their tongues; but we gentlemen labourers if we get hold of a word—Miss Fairfax said something about conjecturing.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Her bees and her crows and her wolves were lying in heaps and drying up, and she had used up all the power of the Golden Cap; but if she could only get hold of the Silver Shoes, they would give her more power than all the other things she had lost.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He turned to the title-page . . . yes, he had written other books; well, he would go to the free library the first thing in the morning and try to get hold of some of Swinburne's stuff.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But had she been less obstinate, or of less weight with her son, who was always guided by the last speaker, by the person who could get hold of and shut him up, the case would still have been hopeless, for Mrs. Rushworth did not appear again, and there was every reason to conclude her to be concealed somewhere with Mr. Crawford, who had quitted his uncle's house, as for a journey, on the very day of her absenting herself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"I should change the light," he said after a moment. "I'd like to bring out the modelling of the features. And I'd try to get hold of all the back hair."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)