[f. WITHHOLD v. + -ER1.] One who withholds.
1483. Acta Audit., in Acta Dom. Conc., II. Introd. 107. That scho haue hir accioun agane the withaldaris of thame.
1516. Reg. Privy Seal Scot., I. 418/1. To compell the withhaldaris and intromettouris thairwith to deliuer the samyn to thaim.
1548. Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., c. 13 § 13. Yt shall not be laufull … to … sue suche witholder or tithes … before any other Judge then ecclesiasticall.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1683), 117. If either Prince haue an intention to recouer any other Rights, against other with-holders.
a. 1674. Traherne, Chr. Ethics (1675), 555. He hath more Withholders to keep him from Sin.
1866. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Exod. xxii. 28. Whether he [sc. God] be regarded as the withholder of prosperity or the restrainer of crime.
1917. Outhwaite, Land or Revol., iii. 21. To compel the urban land withholders to use or part with the land is to solve nine-tenths of the so-called housing problem.
