What part of speech does the highlighted word play in this sentence Have you been accused holding a grudge?

Here's why:

* Participles are verb forms that act as adjectives, describing a noun or pronoun.

* In this case, "holding" describes the noun "grudge". It tells us what kind of grudge it is (one that is being held).

The full verb phrase is "been accused of holding", where "holding" is a present participle used after the preposition "of".