5 [A12; a3] get hold of s.t. to use it.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

The keeper of a restaurant would much prefer that each customer should give his order smartly, though it were for stewed ibis or boiled elephant, rather than that each customer should sit holding his head in his hands, plunged in arithmetical calculations about how much food there can be on the premises.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Such was the ascendancy he had acquired over his dupe, and such the latter’s general habit of submission, that, for the moment, the young man seemed half afraid to pursue the subject.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

His coronation was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their most faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and by the grateful hands of Stephen the Third, who, in the monastery of St. Denys placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

[A3; b8] get hold of s.t. to have it.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

A short examination before the French court detected the impostor, who was punished with an ignominious death; but the Flemings still adhered to the pleasing error; and the countess Jane is accused by the gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition the life of an unfortunate father.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Borrowing was out of the question: six months before he had given his only security to raise funds for necessary repairs to the mill, and he knew that without security no one at Starkfield would lend him ten dollars.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

but her shift and a large pair of buckskin breeches, with the backside before, which she had slipped on in the hurry, and her husband with her petticoat about his shoulders; one had wrapped himself in a blanket, another was covered with a sheet, and the drummer, who had given his only shirt to be washed, appeared in cuerpo with a bolster rolled about his middle.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Miss Stackpole related very freely her conversation with Ralph Touchett’s sociable friend and declared to Isabel that she really believed she had now got hold of something that would lead to something.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

I would get hold of something that felt like what I was looking for, and I’d yank it up, and it would be something else.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

"I'd rather watch a good herd of stock than the best show in New York," he told her.
— from Heart of the Sunset by Rex Beach

'An operation, gentlemen,' he often said to his clinical students, 'is soon enough done when it is well enough done.'
— from The History of Dartmouth College by Baxter Perry Smith

Bertha remembered how Grace had often said that Tom always heard the children cry at night long before they roused her.
— from The Youngest Sister: A Tale of Manitoba by Bessie Marchant

"One day my father said to me--yes, my father--'Conrad, (that is my baptismal name), 'you are now employed at the officers' quarters; the adjutant of the post cannot be trusted; be careful that you get hold of something that involves him; but let it be in writing.
— from Waldfried: A Novel by Berthold Auerbach

His oath to support all the constitutions and privileges was without reservation, while his father and grandfather had only sworn to maintain the charters granted or confirmed by Philip and Charles of Burgundy.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-66) by John Lothrop Motley

The benefites and manner of dressing the vine: Genesis is but the nurse of it; Exodus, the removing; Leviticus, the ordering and manner of keeping it; Josua, the weeding, &c. God soe loued it that he gave his onely Sonne to redeeme it, and when he gave him, what gave he not with him?
— from Diary of John Manningham Of the Middle Temple, and of Bradbourne, Kent, Barrister‑at‑Law, 1602-1603 by John Manningham

During the great heats of summer, there is no danger in bathing, however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed by the sun.
— from The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Illustrated by Tales, Sketches, and Anecdotes by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich

He was holding Courtland's hand in a painful grip, and looking again into his eyes as if he would search his soul to the depths: "You sure have got hold of something there that's worth looking into!
— from The Witness by Grace Livingston Hill

It does not yet show that Mr. Anderson can construct a large plot or that his vision comes with a steady gleam; it shows, rather, that he is still fumbling in the confusion of current life to get hold of something true and simple and to make it clear.
— from Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) by Carl Van Doren

'And yet,' said Sinfi, 'the Golden Hand on Snowdon told as he'd marry Winifred Wynne.
— from Aylwin by Theodore Watts-Dunton