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beholden

[ bih-hohl-duhn ]

/ bɪˈhoʊl dən /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR beholden ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

obligated; indebted: a man beholden to no one.

Origin of beholden

1300–50; Middle English, adj. use of beholden, old past participle of behold

SYNONYMS FOR beholden

obliged, bound, grateful, liable.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR beholden ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM beholden

un·be·hold·en, adjective

Words nearby beholden

behmen, behmenism, behmenist, behn, behold, beholden, behoof, behoove, behove, behrens, behring

Example sentences from the Web for beholden

Accusing his opponents of being locked in a Cold War mind-set, it is Stone who is beholden to old orthodoxies.

Oliver Stone’s Latest Dictator Suckup |James Kirchick |January 5, 2015 |DAILY BEAST
Huckabee is also not burdened by, or beholden to, foreign investors.

Can Huckabee Convert the GOP’s Moneymen? |Lloyd Green |January 4, 2015 |DAILY BEAST
Its members would not be beholden to any special interest groups, at all, for their selection.

Is It Time to Take a Chance on Random Representatives? |Michael Schulson |November 8, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Beholden to a base that, like a capricious autocrat, will turn against them at the slightest provocation.

Ted Cruz is Still Not Here to Make Friends |Jamelle Bouie |February 26, 2014 |DAILY BEAST

The auteurs of the world are no longer given free rein and are now beholden to certain financial imperatives.

Alec Baldwin Uncensored: On His HBO Doc, Bloomberg, Polanski, and The New York Times |Marlow Stern |October 22, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
How shall it be told that Emma of Normandy was beholden to a nunnery for her handmaidens?

King Olaf's Kinsman |Charles Whistler
There my letter reached her, and rather than be beholden to strangers or accept my money there, she came to us.

The Crossing |Winston Churchill
I have been beholden to you for advice in the hours of the most frightful danger.

Such is Life |Frank Wedekind
And though the thing roared to him to stop, yet the sprightly tailor was not the man to be beholden to a monster.

Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales |Various
So when Sir Tristram had beholden them long he thought shame to see two hundred knights battering upon twenty knights.

Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) |Thomas Malory

British Dictionary definitions for beholden

beholden

/ (bɪˈhəʊldən) /

adjective

indebted; obliged; under a moral obligation

Word Origin for beholden

Old English behealden, past participle of behealdan to behold