Me and my platoon sergeant slept together; we practically held hands we were that close".
The 19th century explorer Richard Burton said that "Christendom practically holds circumcision in horror".
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Arckela Dorvil carefully lifted his teenage sister from the road, practically holding his breath, trying desperately not to aggravate her wounded right side.
"The breezeway is practically held up by paint," said John J. Rydzewski, an investment banker who has lived in the Dakota for 12 years.
We're practically holding our breath, rooting for him to make it through these last few years: please no steroid revelation, no creepy sex scandal, no prima-donna meltdown.
After all, Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister who has practically held the central government hostage at certain times in the past year, didn't make the cut on the list of powerful women).
Where's the delight in watching the Defiant One, who never needed anybody's advice, suddenly afraid of his own shadow, practically holding down his hands so he wouldn't seem too emotional?
In 1996, when Therese M. Morr helped found the Cheshire chapter of Little League Baseball, giving the national organization its first foothold in the town, she said, the managers in the league's eastern division office practically held a party for her.
In other words, Massachusetts is about as politically fraught as it comes for a national politician, even a Republican one (former Gov. Mitt Romney practically held his nose while discussing his adopted home state during his campaign for his party's nomination in 2008).
He was practically holding his sides.
