Noun

(en noun)

A group of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.

*

, title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.}}

In Fascist Italy, a joint association of employers' and workers' representatives.

(slang) A protruding belly; a paunch.

* 1918 , (Katherine Mansfield), ‘Prelude’, Selected Stories , Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, page 91:

'You'd be surprised,' said Stanley, as though this were intensely interesting, 'at the number of chaps at the club who have got a corporation .'

* 1974 , (GB Edwards), The Book of Ebenezer Le Page , New York 2007, p. 316:

He was a big chap with a corporation already, and a flat face rather like Dora's, and he had a thin black moustache.

Noun

(wikipedia holding) (en noun)

Something that one owns, especially stocks and bonds.

* 2009 , The Economist, Law and order in Italy: Trouble with figures

Italy's right-wing prime minister was about to cure his biggest headache by selling the state's holding in a troubled airline, Alitalia.

A determination of law made by a court.

A tenure; a farm or other estate held of another.

* 1596 , , V. i. 3:

Take again / From this my hand, as holding of the Pope / Your sovereign greatness and authority.

(obsolete) That which holds, binds, or influences.

(Burke)

(obsolete) Logic; consistency.

* 1598 , , IV. ii. 27:

This has no holding , / To swear by him whom I protest to love / That I will work against him.

(obsolete) The burden or chorus of a song.

* 1598 , , II. vii. 109:

Make battery to our ears with the loud music; / The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing. / The holding every man shall beat as loud / As his strong sides can volley.