BEHOLDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does beholder mean? 

• BEHOLDER (noun)
  The noun BEHOLDER has 1 sense:

1. a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses

  Familiarity information: BEHOLDER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEHOLDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient

Hypernyms ("beholder" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beholder"):

eyeglass wearer (a person who wears spectacles in order to see better)

discoverer; finder; spotter (someone who is the first to observe something)

attender; auditor; hearer; listener (someone who listens attentively)

audile (one whose mental imagery is auditory rather than visual or motor)

motile (one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action)

noticer (someone who takes notice)

seer (an observer who perceives visually)

looker; spectator; viewer; watcher; witness (a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind))

visualiser; visualizer (one whose prevailing mental imagery is visual)

informant; witness; witnesser (someone who sees an event and reports what happened)

Derivation:

behold (see with attention)

 Context examples 

The family, as emigrants, being objects of some interest in and about Hungerford, attracted so many beholders, that we were glad to take refuge in their room.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Only on one point were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Beautiful as she was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the beholder; it was her strength, her power, the sense of wisdom which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay in the square jaw and delicately moulded chin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of course they were the most remarkable children ever born, as will be shown when I mention that they walked at eight months, talked fluently at twelve months, and at two years they took their places at table, and behaved with a propriety which charmed all beholders.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

These reminded me, in reference to Miss Murdstone's nature, of the fetters over a jail door; suggesting on the outside, to all beholders, what was to be expected within.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Amy's face was a study when she saw her sister skim into the next drawing room, kiss all the young ladies with effusion, beam graciously upon the young gentlemen, and join in the chat with a spirit which amazed the beholder.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

All kinds of treatment were tried with him, coaxing, scolding, slapping, bringing him to Buckingham Street (where he instantly dashed at the two cats, to the terror of all beholders); but he never could prevail upon himself to bear my aunt's society.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)