What does trattenere in Italian mean?

What is the meaning of the word trattenere in Italian? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use trattenere in Italian.

The word trattenere in Italian means hold, stop, block, hold back, detain, withhold, restrain yourself, stay, remain, hold your breath, hold one's breath. To learn more, please see the details below.

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Meaning of the word trattenere

hold, stop, block

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (tenere saldo, afferrare)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Trattieni questa fune mentre io cerco di bloccarla con un nodo.
Hold this rope while I try to stop it with a knot.

hold back

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (tenere dentro di sé)

(phrasal verb, transitive, inseparable: Verb with adverb(s) or preposition(s), having special meaning, not divisible--for example,"go with" [=combine nicely]: "Those red shoes don't go with my dress." NOT [S]"Those red shoes don't go my dress with."[/S])
Cerca di trattenere la tua rabbia.
Try to hold your rage back.

detain

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (costringere a fermarsi)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Scusate il ritardo, mi hanno trattenuto al lavoro.
Sorry I'm late, I was detained at work.

withhold

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (somma: detrarre)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
La cifra sarà trattenuta dalla busta paga.
The amount will be withheld from your paycheck.

restrain yourself

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (figurato (evitare di fare [qlcs])

Trattieniti dal criticare per una volta.
Restrain yourself from criticising for once.

stay, remain

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (figurato (restare in un luogo)

(intransitive verb: Verb not taking a direct object--for example, "She jokes." "He has arrived.")
Non mi tratterrò a lungo, ho un altro appuntamento.
I won't be staying long, I have another appointment.

hold your breath

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale

hold one's breath

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (trattenere il fiato)

Franco trattenne il respiro mentre gli comunicavano il risultato dell'esame.
Franco held his breath whilst we gave him the exam result.

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So now that you know more about the meaning of trattenere in Italian, you can learn how to use them through selected examples and how to read them. And remember to learn the related words that we suggest. Our website is constantly updating with new words and new examples so you can look up the meanings of other words you don't know in Italian.

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Italian (italiano) is a Romance language and is spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Italian uses the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y do not exist in the standard Italian alphabet, but they still appear in loanwords from Italian. Italian is the second most widely spoken in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Italian is the principal working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. An important event that helped to the spread of Italian was Napoleon's conquest and occupation of Italy in the early 19th century. This conquest spurred the unification of Italy several decades later and pushed the language of the Italian language. Italian became a language used not only among secretaries, aristocrats and the Italian courts, but also by the bourgeoisie.