[ANCHOR sb.1 + HOLD.]
1. The hold or grip that an anchor takes; also, the ground that it grips, = ANCHORAGE1 2.
1527. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. xxxix. 75. Being compelled to experiment whether anker-hold would serve us.
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), 25. If our anchor hold and ground tackle had failed, no industrie could haue preserued vs.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1740), 111. They found good anchor-hold in about thirty-six fathom.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Anchor-hold, the fastness of the flukes on the ground.
2. fig. Firm hold; point clung to; chief ground of trust, expectation, argument, etc.
1533. More, Answ. Poys. Bk., Wks. 1557, 1100/1. In these woordes is the very ankerhold.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 28. Their chiefest anker hold, was these words of Christ.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VIII. vii. 403. The Norman Duke, who made that the anker-hold of his claime.
1855. I. Taylor, Restor. Belief (1856), 120. Good anchor-hold in the roadstead of apostolicity.
1883. W. Gibson, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 192. Hope’s anchor-hold on golden grounds of Faith!
