blow vs hold

blow

noun
  • A sudden or forcible act or effort; an assault. 

  • Synonym of button (“the punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene”) 

  • Cocaine. 

  • An instance of using high-pressure air to empty water from the ballast tanks of a submarine, increasing the submarine's buoyancy and causing it to surface. 

  • A damaging occurrence. 

  • Cannabis. 

  • A mass or display of flowers; a yield. 

  • An outcrop of quartz from surrounding rock, thought to indicate mineral deposits below. 

  • A bloom, state of flowering. 

  • A strong wind. 

  • The act of striking or hitting. 

  • A blowjob; fellatio. 

  • A display of anything brilliant or bright. 

  • Heroin. 

  • A chance to catch one's breath. 

  • A cut made to a sheep's fleece by a shearer using hand-shears. 

adj
  • Blue. 

verb
  • (used to express displeasure or frustration) Damn. 

  • To create or shape by blowing; as in to blow bubbles, to blow glass. 

  • To flatulate or defecate. 

  • To produce an air current. 

  • To fail at something; to mess up; to make a mistake. 

  • To propel by an air current (or, if under water, a water current), usually with the mouth. 

  • To fellate; to perform oral sex on (usually a man). 

  • To make flyblown, to defile, especially with fly eggs. 

  • (of a fly) To lay eggs; to breed. 

  • To put out of breath; to cause to blow from fatigue. 

  • To be propelled by an air current. 

  • To sing. 

  • To blow from a gun. 

  • To blossom; to cause to bloom or blossom. 

  • To make a sound as the result of being blown. 

  • To clear of contents by forcing air through. 

  • To cause the sudden destruction of. 

  • To cause to make sound by blowing, as a musical instrument. 

  • To direct or move, usually of a person to a particular location. 

  • To burst or explode; to occur suddenly 

  • To leave, especially suddenly or in a hurry. 

  • To suddenly fail destructively. 

  • To exhale visibly through the spout the seawater which it has taken in while feeding. 

  • To force a current of air upon with the mouth, or by other means. 

  • To be very undesirable. 

  • To leave the Church of Scientology in an unauthorized manner. 

  • To breathe hard or quick; to pant; to puff. 

  • To recklessly squander. 

  • To cause to explode, shatter, or be utterly destroyed. 

hold

noun
  • An act or instance of holding. 

  • The property of maintaining the shape of styled hair. 

  • The part of an object one is intended to grasp, or anything one can use for grasping with hands or feet. 

  • Power over someone or something. 

  • A place where animals are held for safety 

  • Keep a firm hold on the handlebars. 

  • A position or grip used to control the opponent. 

  • The wager amount, the total hold. 

  • A fruit machine feature allowing one or more of the reels to remain fixed while the others spin. 

  • The cargo area of a ship or aircraft (often holds or cargo hold). 

  • The ability to persist. 

  • An exercise involving holding a position for a set time 

  • An order that something is to be reserved or delayed, limiting or preventing how it can be dealt with. 

  • Something reserved or kept. 

  • A grasp or grip. 

  • The percentage the house wins on a gamble, the house or bookmaker's hold. 

  • As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015 

  • The House Hold on the game is 10,000, this is the amount of decision or risk the house wishes to assume. 

  • The queueing system on telephones and similar communication systems which maintains a connection when all lines are busy. 

  • A statistic awarded to a relief pitcher who is not still pitching at the end of the game and who records at least one out and maintains a lead for his team. 

  • An instance of holding one's service game, as opposed to being broken. 

  • A region of airspace reserved for aircraft being kept in a holding pattern. 

verb
  • To detain. 

  • To take place, to occur. 

  • In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted. 

  • To have and keep possession of something. 

  • Not to move; to halt; to stop. 

  • To be or remain valid; to apply (usually in the third person). 

  • To contain or store. 

  • To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale. 

  • To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice). 

  • To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain. 

  • To win one's own service game. 

  • To cause to wait or delay. 

  • To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain. 

  • To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions. 

  • To maintain, to consider, to opine. 

  • To grasp or grip. 

  • To reserve. 

  • To bear, carry, or manage. 

  • To keep oneself in a particular state. 

  • To remain continent; to control an excretory bodily function. 

  • Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued. 

  • To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain. 

How often have the words blow and hold occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )