keep
Forms
- present (v1)
- keep
- past (v2)
- kept
- past participle (v3)
- kept
- present participle
- keeping
- 3rd person singular
- keeps
- Plural
- keeps
Definitions
1.To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.
- Just go about your business and don't keep looking at me.
- Keep distance from trucks and other vehicles when driving.
- Keep all medicines out of the reach and sight of children.
2.To remain faithful to a given promise or word.
- Both day and night did we keep company.
3.To hold the status of something.
- May the Lord keep you from harm.
- He kept a mistress for over ten years.
- I keep my pet gerbil away from my brother.
4.To hold or be held in a state.
- Keep calm! There's no need to panic.
- She kept to her bed while the fever lasted.
- I keep taking the tablets, but to no avail.
1.The state of being kept; hence, the resulting condition; case.
2.A cap for holding something, such as a journal box, in place.
3.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.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #151
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Common
Related words
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”)).