Hold artist in Britain (4)
I believe the answer is:
grab
'hold' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'artist in britain' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'britain' becomes 'GB' (abbreviation for Great Britain).
'ra' inserted into 'gb' is 'GRAB'.
(Other definitions for grab that I've seen before include "'Seize, snatch (4)'" , "Seize roughly" , "Seize suddenly" , "Seize hold of" , "Grasp roughly" .)