| / English Dictionary |
BEHOLDING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Perception by means of the eyes
Synonyms:
beholding; seeing; visual perception
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("beholding" is a kind of...):
perception (the process of perceiving)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beholding"):
contrast (the perceptual effect of the juxtaposition of very different colors)
face recognition (the visual perception of familiar faces)
object recognition (the visual perception of familiar objects)
visual space (the visual perception of space)
fusion; optical fusion (the combining of images from the two eyes to form a single visual percept)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb behold
Context examples:
Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
For the better convenience of beholding him, I lay on my side, so that my face was parallel to his, and he stood but three yards off: however, I have had him since many times in my hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the description.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Umble as I am, he wiped his hands harder, and looked at them and at the fire by turns, umble as my mother is, and lowly as our poor but honest roof has ever been, the image of Miss Agnes (I don't mind trusting you with my secret, Master Copperfield, for I have always overflowed towards you since the first moment I had the pleasure of beholding you in a pony-shay) has been in my breast for years.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Elizabeth made no answer, and took her place in the set, amazed at the dignity to which she was arrived in being allowed to stand opposite to Mr. Darcy, and reading in her neighbours' looks, their equal amazement in beholding it.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
He had spoken earnestly, mildly: his look was not, indeed, that of a lover beholding his mistress, but it was that of a pastor recalling his wandering sheep—or better, of a guardian angel watching the soul for which he is responsible.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
How can I describe my sensations on beholding it?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book was produced; but, on beholding it (for everything announced it to be from a circulating library), he started back, and begging pardon, protested that he never read novels.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
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