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To hold back; to restrain; to keep from action. Withhold, O sovereign prince, your hasty hand From knitting league with him. Spenser.

One who withholds.

The act of withholding.

To withhold from being present. [Obs.] "Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more." Milton.

To hinder; to withhold. Whether he abstain men from marrying. Milton.

To combine against (a landlord, tradesman, employer, or other person), to withhold social or business relations from him, and to deter others from holding such relations; to subject to a boycott.

from observation; to cover; to cover or keep from sight; to prevent the discovery of; to withhold knowledge of. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing. Prov. xxv. 2. Declare ye among the nations, . . . publish and conceal not. Jer. 1. 2. He which finds him shall deserve our thanks, . . . He that conceals him, death…

To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold. Defer the spoil of the city until night. Shak. God . . . will not long defer To vindicate the glory of his name. Milton.

To keep from the rightful owner; to withhold wrongfully the possession of, as of lands or a freehold.

A keeping out by force or wrong; a wrongful withholding, as of lands or tenements, to which another has a right.

To deprive of some right, interest, or property, by a deceitful device; to withhold from wrongfully; to injure by embezzlement; to cheat; to overreach; as, to defraud a servant, or a creditor, or the state; -- with of before the thing taken or withheld. We have defrauded no man. 2 Cor. vii. 2. Churches seem injured and…

To refuse to grant; to withhold; to refuse to gratify or yield to; as, to deny a request. Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies Pope. To some men, it is more agreeable to deny a vicious inclination, than to gratify it. J. Edwards.

To keep back or from; to withhold. Detain not the wages of the hireling. Jer. Taylor.

The act of detaining or keeping back; a withholding.

To withhold or withdraw favor from; to regard with disesteem; to show disapprobation of; to discountenance. Countenanced or disfavored according as they obey. Swift.

A withholding of intimacy; alienation; coldness; disagreement; variance; restraint; reserve. Setting them [factions] at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves. Bacon. On the part of Heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste. Milton.

To question or hold questionable; to withhold assent to; to hesitate to believe, or to be inclined not to believe; to withhold confidence from; to distrust; as, I have heard the story, but I doubt the truth of it. To admire superior sense, and doubt their own! Pope. I doubt not that however changed, you keep So much of…

s for the recovery of possession of real property, and damages and costs for the wrongful withholding of it. Wharton.

To withdraw; to withhold; hence, reflexively, to keep at a distance; to cease to be familiar and friendly with. We must estrange our belief from everything which is not clearly and distinctly evidenced. Glanvill. Had we . . . estranged ourselves from them in things indifferent. Hooker.

le and unjust. Swift. Forcible entry and detainer (Law), the entering upon and taking and withholding of land and tenements by actual force and violence, and with a strong hand, to the hindrance of the person having the right to enter.