keep

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 10
Words With Friends: 11
Letters: 4

Pronunciation

/kiːp/

See all 5 pronunciations

/kiːp/ · [kiːp] · [kʰɪjp] · [k̟çi(ː)p](US) · [k(ʰ)i(ː)p]

Definition of keep

35 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

(transitive)To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.

“to keep silence; to keep possession”

See all 35 definitions

verb

(transitive)To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.

“to keep silence; to keep possession”
(transitive)To remain faithful to a given promise or word.

“to keep one's word; to keep one's promise”
“Both day and night did we keep company.”
“Within the Portal as I kept my Watch, / Swift gliding Shadows by the glimm'ring Moon, I could perceive in Forms of armed Men, / Poſſeſſ the Space that borders on the Porch— […]”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“I keep a small stock of painkillers for emergencies.”
“I only meant to lend him the shirt at first, but it looked better on him than me, so I told him to keep it.”
(ditransitive, transitive)To hold the status of something.

“I keep my specimens under glass to protect them.”
“The abundance of squirrels kept the dogs running for hours.”
“Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered.[…]The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.”
“She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“I used to keep a diary.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.
(archaic, transitive)To hold the status of something.

“Metrocles somewhat indiscreetly, as he was disputing in his Schole, in presence of his auditory, let a fart, for shame whereof he afterwards kept his house and could not be drawen abroad[…].”
“The wrathful skies / Gallow the very wanderers of the dark / And make them keep their caves.”
“The following day she was so ill that she kept her bed; the husband went not once to enquire for her, nor did he send any message: he also kept his apartment, and was heard walking backwards and forwards with a hurried pace the whole of that day.”
“"As I sat alone at my breakfast--Mrs. Challenger is in the habit of keeping her room of a morning--it suddenly entered my head that it would be entertaining and instructive to see whether I could find any limits to this woman's inperturbability."”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“I keep my pet gerbil away from my brother.”
“Don't let me keep you; I know you have things to be doing.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“May the Lord keep you from harm.”
“cursse on thy cruell hond, / That twise hath sped; yet shall it not thee keepe / From the third brunt of this my fatall brond […]”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“He kept a mistress for over ten years.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“He has been keeping orchids since retiring.”
“Here John had to keep cows with other boys, and they used to drive them to graze about the Nine-hills.”
“Of course boys are boys and need watching, but there is little watching necessary when they keep chickens.”
“Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“I know that it's a secret / And that I gotta keep it / But I want the lights on / Yeah, I want the lights on”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.

“like a pedant that keeps a school”
“They were honourably accompanied and with great estate brought to London, where euery of them kept house by himselfe.”
“At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.”
(transitive)To hold the status of something.
(intransitive, obsolete)To hold or be held in a state.

“She kept to her bed while the fever lasted.”
“Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps, / To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge; […]”
(intransitive)To hold or be held in a state.

“I keep taking the tablets, but to no avail.”
“Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. […] Next day she […] tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.”
“Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic[…]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become.[…]But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.”
(intransitive)To hold or be held in a state.

“Potatoes can keep if they are in a root cellar.”
“Latex paint won't keep indefinitely.”
“If the malt be not thoroughly dried, the ale it makes will not keep.”
(copulative, intransitive)To hold or be held in a state.

“The rabbit avoided detection by keeping still.”
“Keep calm! There's no need to panic.”
(UK, intransitive, obsolete)To hold or be held in a state.
(obsolete)To wait for, keep watch for.

“And thenne whan the damoysel knewe certaynly that he was not syre launcelot / thenne she took her leue and departed from hym / And thenne syre Trystram rode pryuely vnto the posterne where kepte hym la beale Isoud / and there she made hym good chere and thanked god of his good spede”
(intransitive)To act as wicket-keeper.

“Godfrey Evans kept for England for many years.”
(intransitive, obsolete)To take care; to be solicitous; to watch.

“[…] kepe that the lustes choke not the word of God that is sowen in vs,”
(intransitive, obsolete)To be in session; to take place.

“School keeps today.”
(transitive)To observe; to adhere to; to fulfill; to not swerve from or violate.

“I have kept the faith: […]”
“Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all / Him whom to love is to obey, and keep / His great command; […]”
(broadly, dated, transitive)To visit (a place) often; to frequent.

“[…] 'tis hallowed ground; No Maid seeks here her strayed Cow, or Sheep, Fairies, and fawns, and satyrs do it keep:”
(dated, transitive)To observe or celebrate (a holiday).

“to keep the Sabbath”
“The feast of St. Stephen is kept on December 26.”
“"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."”
“"Oh, we are from Osthalla," says one of them, "we are going to the Veien dairy to keep the wedding; the one who drives in front is the parson, next are the bride and bridegroom, and I am his father-in-law."”
(Singapore, Wales, transitive)To put (something) back (to its original location or appropriate place); to put away.

“Please keep these books.”
“[…] semantic shift: e.g., to send (“to give a lift”), to keep (“to put away”), to hack (“to remove carefully,” e.g., tiles, plaster, etc.), knock (“to remove a dent from a car”), bluff (“to joke”), stay (“to live”) […]”

noun

(countable, historical, uncountable)The main tower of a castle or fortress, located within the castle walls.
(countable, uncountable)The food or money required to keep someone alive and healthy; one's support, maintenance.

“He works as a cobbler's apprentice for his keep.”
(countable, uncountable)The state of being kept; hence, the resulting condition; case.

“to be in good keep”
(countable, uncountable)A cap for holding something, such as a journal box, in place.
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)The act or office of keeping; custody; guard; care; heed; charge; notice.

“So Sir Gareth strayned hym so that his olde wounde braste ayen on bledynge; but he was hote and corragyous and toke no kepe, but with his grete forse he strake downe the knyght[…].”
“Pan, thou god of shepherds all, / Which of our tender lambkins takest keep.”
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)That which is kept in charge; a charge.

“Often he used of his keep / A sacrifice to bring.”
(countable, euphemistic, obsolete, uncountable)A mistress (the other woman in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations).

“My Darling Girl, In London the other day I heard a piece of news which may amuse you. The French girl who shot her so-called Egyptian prince and is going to be tried for murder, is the fancy woman who was the Prince's 'keep' in Paris during the war […]”

name

A surname.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

See full etymology

From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-, *ǵāb- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian žẽbti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian забо́та (zabóta, “care, worry”)). The dialectal sense of the verb meaning “to put back” or “put away” may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare Welsh cadw and Mandarin 收 (shōu).