hold sway

1. 1.

   be master; reign or rule

   Broadercontrol

Questions about hold sway

What does hold sway mean?

hold sway means "be master; reign or rule".

Is hold sway a common word?

hold sway is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.