healdan

Old English

healdan (West Saxon)

to keep watch over (cattle etc.)
- Old English Heptateuch, Genesis 4:9
  ...sċeolde iċ mīnne broþor healdon?
  ...should I watch over my brother?
to hold fast, to grasp
to contain
to possess
- c. 992, Ælfric, "Sermon on the Nativiity of Our Lord"
  Ðyllīce word María hēold ārǣfniġende on hire heortan.
  Such words Mary held, pondering them in her heart.
to keep, hold, preserve something in a specific position or state
- 10th century, Exeter Book Riddle 8‎^[1]:
  Iċ… hlūde ċirme, healde mīne wīsan, hlēoþre ne mīþe,…
  I… loudly cry out, hold my tone, don't hide a sound,…
to keep to, maintain, observe a custom or habit
(intransitive) to maintain one’s position against an enemy

Conjugation of healdan (strong class 7)

Middle English: holden, halden, halde, halt
- English: hold
- Geordie English: ha'd
- Scots: hald, hauld, haud, had
- Yola: houle

Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “healdan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.