'hold the crowd' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe someone who is able to captivate and entertain a large group of people with their words or performance. For example: The actor held the crowd captivated for the entire duration of his one-man show.
Outside, police and firefighters hold the crowd at bay.
Its lines are sinuous and graceful, curving gently to hold the crowd like a cupped hand.
Remove the simple elements of electoral democracy — prevent people from renting a hall big enough to hold the crowd — and the situation can get extreme and, in Greece's case, tragic.
Ms. Low's memorial service two Saturdays ago drew more than 1,000 people, fully one of every 10 Batesville residents, and had to be held in a community college auditorium because the First Methodist Church could not hold the crowd.
Since no space at this outpost in far western Chelsea is big enough to hold the crowd the Kitchen hopes will pay gala prices to attend, the party will be at Town Hall in Midtown.
Judge James Garrett had warned the audience in this courtroom, a cold, modern, prefabricated building barely large enough to hold the crowd, that he would lock up anyone who exhibited "an emotional outcry".
Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian 8.18pm BST Stewards hold the crowds back at a dusty road crossing.
The Jesuits here constructed a coliseum-size church to hold the crowds, and placed wooden statues of the new saints at the peaks of its stockadelike altar.
The union rented out the largest stadium in the capital region, the Pepsi Arena, and it still was not large enough to hold the crowds.
The crowd surged, the gate held, the crowd relaxed, then surged again.
Soldiers and the police held the crowd at a second barrier.
