This riddle asks you to think beyond the usual meaning of the word “hold.” Normally, holding something means using your hands, but there is something everyone can hold without touching it at all.
Think about what you do when you stop breathing for a few seconds.
Answer: Your breath.
You can “hold your breath” without physically touching it. The phrase is so common that we rarely stop to think about how unusual the wording actually is.
That double meaning is what makes this riddle work. If you were searching for an object you could somehow hold at a distance, the answer was hiding in an everyday expression instead.
