"beholden" meaning in English

See beholden in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /bɪˈhəʊldən/ [Received-Pronunciation], /bɪˈhoʊldən/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-beholden.ogg [Australia]
Rhymes: -əʊldən Etymology: From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan. Cognate with behold in the otherwise unrecorded sense “bound”. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|beholden}} Middle English beholden, {{inh|en|ang|behealdan}} Old English behealdan, {{m|en|behold}} behold Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} beholden (not comparable)
  1. (usually with 'to') Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged. Tags: not-comparable, usually Synonyms: beholding [obsolete] Derived forms: beholdenness, unbeholden Translations (obligated, bound by moral obligation): задължен (zadǎlžen) (Bulgarian), признателен (priznatelen) (Bulgarian), verplicht (Dutch), schatplichtig (Dutch), redevable (French), verpflichtet (German), gebunden (German), обя́занный (objázannyj) [masculine] (Russian), призна́тельный (priznátelʹnyj) [masculine] (Russian), comprometido (Spanish)

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for beholden meaning in English (4.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "beholden"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English beholden",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "behealdan"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English behealdan",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "behold"
      },
      "expansion": "behold",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan. Cognate with behold in the otherwise unrecorded sense “bound”.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "beholden (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "be‧hol‧den"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English adjectives ending in -en",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "beholdenness"
        },
        {
          "word": "unbeholden"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "From an early age, I had decided I wanted to be beholden to no one.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-08-06",
          "text": "But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments, seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist",
          "text": "There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged."
      ],
      "id": "en-beholden-en-adj-EnXtgjYR",
      "links": [
        [
          "Obligated",
          "obligated"
        ],
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "display",
          "display"
        ],
        [
          "indebted",
          "indebted"
        ],
        [
          "obliged",
          "obliged"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually with 'to') Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "with 'to'"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "beholding"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "zadǎlžen",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "задължен"
        },
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "priznatelen",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "признателен"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "verplicht"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "schatplichtig"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "redevable"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "verpflichtet"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "gebunden"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "objázannyj",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "обя́занный"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "priznátelʹnyj",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "призна́тельный"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
          "word": "comprometido"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈhəʊldən/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈhoʊldən/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊldən"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beholden.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/5c/En-au-beholden.ogg/En-au-beholden.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/En-au-beholden.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beholden"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "beholdenness"
    },
    {
      "word": "unbeholden"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "beholden"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English beholden",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "behealdan"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English behealdan",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "behold"
      },
      "expansion": "behold",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan. Cognate with behold in the otherwise unrecorded sense “bound”.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "beholden (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "be‧hol‧den"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English 3-syllable words",
        "English adjectives",
        "English adjectives ending in -en",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms derived from Middle English",
        "English terms derived from Old English",
        "English terms inherited from Middle English",
        "English terms inherited from Old English",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English uncomparable adjectives",
        "Rhymes:English/əʊldən",
        "Rhymes:English/əʊldən/3 syllables"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "From an early age, I had decided I wanted to be beholden to no one.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-08-06",
          "text": "But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM accouterments, seeking a comfortable middle ground where Bieber’s impressively refined pop-R&B croon can rub up on techno blasts and garish dubstep drops (and occasionally grind on some AutoTune, not necessarily because it needs it, but because a certain amount of robo-voice is expected these days).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist",
          "text": "There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Obligated",
          "obligated"
        ],
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "display",
          "display"
        ],
        [
          "indebted",
          "indebted"
        ],
        [
          "obliged",
          "obliged"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually with 'to') Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted, obliged."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "with 'to'"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈhəʊldən/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈhoʊldən/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊldən"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beholden.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/5c/En-au-beholden.ogg/En-au-beholden.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/En-au-beholden.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "beholding"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "zadǎlžen",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "задължен"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "priznatelen",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "признателен"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "verplicht"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "schatplichtig"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "redevable"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "verpflichtet"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "gebunden"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "objázannyj",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "обя́занный"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "priznátelʹnyj",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "призна́тельный"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "obligated, bound by moral obligation",
      "word": "comprometido"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beholden"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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