Crossword clues for holdfast
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Holdfast \Hold"fast`\, n.
Something used to secure and hold in place something else, as a long flat-headed nail, a catch a hook, a clinch, a clamp, etc.; hence, a support. ``His holdfast was gone.''
--Bp. Montagu.(Bot.) A conical or branching body, by which a seaweed is attached to its support, and differing from a root in that it is not specially absorbent of moisture.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Something to or by which an object can be securely fastened. 2 (context zoology English) A root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms, such as seaweed, other sessile algae, stalked crinoids, benthic cnidarians, and sponges, to the substrate. 3 (context archaic medicine English) actinomycosis.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A holdfast is a root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms, such as seaweed, other sessile algae, stalked crinoids, benthic cnidarians, and sponges, to the substrate.
Holdfasts vary in shape and form depending on both the species and the substrate type. The holdfasts of organisms that live in muddy substrates often have complex tangles of root-like growths. Those of organisms that live in sandy substrates are bulb-like and very flexible, such as the holdfast of sea pens, thus permitting the organism to pull the entire body into the substrate when the holdfast is contracted. The holdfasts of organisms that live on smooth surfaces (such as the surface of a boulder) have the flattened base of the holdfast literally glued to the surface. The organism derives no nutrition from this intimate contact with the substrate, as the process of liberating nutrients from the substrate requires enzymatically eroding the substrate away, thereby increasing the risk of organism falling off of the substrate.
A holdfast is a root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms to their substrate.
Holdfast or hold fast may also refer to:
- Hold fast, a woodworking tool
- Hold Fast, motto of the Clan MacLeod
- Holdfast, a common name in the South of England for Sellotape
- A small castle or fort in some fantasy fiction, such as George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series
Usage examples of "holdfast".
Ser Amory had no ladders, but the holdfast walls were rough-cut and unmortared, easy to climb, and there seemed to be no end to the foes.
Half the fields are burnt, and what folks are left are walled up inside their holdfasts.
There were always people swimming off the new quay or splashing about in coracles and small boats, and men working at the fish traps and the shoals at the mouth of the shallow Breas where razorshell mussels were cultivated, and divers hunting for urchins and abalone amongst the holdfasts of stands of giant kelp whose long blades formed vast brown slicks on the surface of the river.
The plant had no roots but had supportive structures like holdfasts, which maintained the shape of the whole organism and the coherence of the skeleton too.
The car was a tall cylinder of white eldren plastic with holdfasts spaced along a kind of seat around it.
I need timetime" Benn belted the lax body into the holdfast seat and shouted into the intercom phone.
If Jaan dies in duel with a man of a holdfast other than Ironjade, a Braith or a Redsteel, Gwen passes to that man like baggage, property-to become his betheyn, or a mere eyn-kethi if the victor already wears jade-and-silver.
Such islands had initially had to be anchored to subsurface structures by mechanical holdfasts because Leon Gantz's techniques of biotech cementation hadn't been around in those days, but anyone who cared to employ gantzers on a sufficiently lavish scale could now make better provision.
And Ivy divided from the root, we have observed to live some years, by the cirrous parts commonly conceived but as tenacles and holdfasts unto it.
Presently it showed clearer still, and Pullings pointed out the principal charms of the island: Holdfast Tom, Stone Top, and Old Joan Point - he had landed several times, and he did wish he could show the Doctor the bird that haunted Diana’s Peak, a cross between an owl and a poll-parrot, with a curious bill.
Presently it showed clearer still, and Pullings pointed out the principal charms of the island: Holdfast Tom, Stone Top, and Old Joan Point - he had landed several times, and he did wish he could show the Doctor the bird that haunted Diana's Peak, a cross between an owl and a poll-parrot, with a curious bill.
Crowder pulled the rocking chair up near the potbelly stove, reached for the twine in its holdfast, and began to knit.
But Nik Holdfast and his clan had paid well for safe passage for the pilgrims.
In his own holdfast, men grow up speaking only standard star-talk.
Benjen Stark had only his bastard nephew and some fresh mounts for the Night's Watch, but at the edge of the wolfswood they stayed a night behind the wooden walls of a forest holdfast, and there joined up with another of the black brothers, one Yoren.