keep 
When thou borrowest, keepe thy day though it be to thy 
payne. Babees Book(E. E. T. S.), p. 98. 
But, abstracting from the reason, let us consider who 
keeps the precept best. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835 ), II. 265. 
3. To celebrate or observe with all due for- 
malities or rites ; solemnize: as, to keep Lent. 
The day Is very solemnly kept in all the Cities. 
Coryat, Crudities, I. 103. 
This day shall be unto you for a memorial ; and ye shall 
keep it a feast to the Lord. Ex. xii. 14. 
Here am I come down to what you call keep my Christ- 
mas. Walpole, Letters, II. 139. 
4. To hold; have or can-yon: as, to keep court ; 
to keep an act at a university. 
In the same Towne there ys a merkett, wekely kepte, 
and havyng in yt abowt M.D. houselyng peaple. 
English Gilds (E. E. T. S.)> p. 222. 
Chambery ... is the Capitall City of Savoy, wherein 
they Keep their Parliament. Coryat, Crudities, I. 79. 
5. To tend; care for; have the charge, over- 
sight, or custody of. 
They did apoynt four men of the mannor to Tteepe the 
wood, for the prontt of the tenants coramodyty of the 
mannor. English Gilds (E. E. T. 8.), p. 437. 
Humble, and like in eche degree 
The flocke which he did keepe. 
Spenser, Shep. Cal., July. 
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Gen. ii. 15. 
The shadow cloak'd from head to foot, 
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, xxiii. 
6. To guard; protect; preserve; especially, to 
maintain inviolate or intact; preserve from 
danger, mishap, loss, decay, etc. : as, to keep 
the peace. 
I schal thee take a trewe fere 
That trewly schal kepen thee 
While in erthe thou schalt be. 
King Horn (E. E. T. S.X p. 76. 
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all 
places whither thou goest. Gen. xxviii. 15. 
In yon strait path a thousand 
. May well be stopped by three. 
Now who will stand on either hand, 
And keep the bridge with me? 
Macaulay, Horatius. 
There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases, 
And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. 
Pope, R. of the L., v. 115. 
7. To retain or hold possession of; retain in 
one's own power or possession ; continue to 
have, hold, or enjoy; retain: as, he got it to 
keep; to keep a thing in mind ; to keep a secret; 
to keep one's own counsel. 
Thei cone wel wynnen lond of Straungeres, but the! 
cone not kepen it. Mandevttle, Travels, p. 262. 
My Memory hath kept the bad, and let go the good. 
Howett, Letters, I. vi. 61. 
Keep a thing, its use will come. Tennyson, The Epic. 
The remotest descendant of a continental noble keeps 
all the privileges of nobility ; the remote descendant of 
an English peer has no privilege beyond his faint chance 
of succeeding to the peerage. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 306. 
8. To have habitually in stock or for sale. 
A ... housewife of the neighborhood burst breathless 
into the shop, fiercely demanding yeast ; . . . the poor gen- 
tlewoman, with her cold shyness of manner, gave her hot 
customer to understand that she did not keep the article. 
Hawthorne, Seven Gables. 
9. To have habitually in attendance or use; 
employ or maintain in service, or for one's use 
or enjoyment : as, to keep three servants ; to 
keep a horse and carriage. 
Thou dost not keep a dog 
Whom I would imitate. 
Shak., T. of A., iv. 3, 200. 
We dined there the next day, and went on the lake in a 
boat, which they keep in order to bring wood from the 
other side. Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 69. 
I keep but a man and a maid, ever ready to slander and 
steal. Tennyson, Maud, iv. 
10. To maintain; support; provide for; supply 
with whatever is needed. 
What shall become of my poor family ? 
They are no sheep, and they must keep themselves. 
Beau, and Fl., Scornful Lady, iii. 2. 
Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. 
ilarston, Jonson, and Chapman, Eastward Ho. 
"When they found that 'ere boy," continued Sol "he 
was all worn to skin and bone ; he'd kep' himself a week 
on berries and ches'nuts and sich, but a boy can't be kep' 
on what a squirrel can." H. B. Stouie, Oldtown, p. 234. 
11. To maintain or carry on, as an establish- 
ment, institution, business, etc.; conduct; man- 
age : as, to keep a school or a hotel ; to keep shop ; 
to keep house. 
A wyf is kepere of thyn housbondrye ; 
Well may the sike man biwaille and wepe, 
Ther as tiler nys no wyf the hous to kepe. 
Chaucer, Merchant's Tale, 1. 138. 
3270 
If he love her not, . . . 
Let me be no assistant for a state, 
But keep a farm and carters. 
SAa*., Hamlet, ii. 2, 167. 
The court also sent for Mrs. Hutchinson, and charged 
her with divers matters, as her keeping two public lectures 
every week in her house. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 294. 
This is the only House in Pails I saw kept, in all the 
parts of it, with the most exact cleanliness and neatness, 
Gardens and all. Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 188. 
12f. To receive; go to meet; receive as a 
friend or guest. 
Hastily that lady hende, 
Cumand al her men to wende, 
And dight tham in thair best at ay, 
To kepe the King that ilk day. 
Sir Ywam, MS. Cotton, ap. Warton, iii. 108, 131. 
[(Jamieson.) 
Againe the comyng of Jhesu C'riste 
To kepe him when he doun sal come. 
Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1. 5028. 
13. To take in and provide for; entertain. 
( 'all si thou me host! 
Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term, 
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. 
Shak., Hen.V., ii. 1, 33. 
14. To hold; detain: as, what keeps him here ? 
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam 
Exceeds a dunce that has been kept at home. 
Cowper, Progress of Error, 1. 416. 
Excuse me for having kept you so long. 
Bulwer, Money, iii. 5. 
Lunatics who are dangerous to society are kept in con- 
finement. E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, I. 291. 
15. To hold or hold back; restrain. 
In chambur among ladyes bryjth, 
Kepe thy tonge & spende thy sygth. 
Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 15. 
I have kept you from a crying sin would damn you 
To men and time. 
Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, v. 2. 
How hard it is when a man meets with a Foole to keepe 
his tongue from folly ! Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus. 
16. To continue, or continue to maintain or 
preserve, as a state or course of action : as, to 
keep the same road ; to keep step. 
He kept his course along the coast of the Elngdome of 
Sicilia. Capt. John Smith, True Travels, I. 7. 
Her servants' eyes were flx'd upon her face, 
And, as she mov'd or turn'd, her motions view'd, 
Her measures kept, and step by step pursued. 
Dryden. 
Justice is an old lame hobbling beldame, and I can't get 
her to keepf&ce with Generosity for the soul of me. 
Sheridan, School for Scandal, iv. 1. 
17. To cause to be or continue in some speci- 
fied state, condition, action, or course: as, to 
keep the coast clear ; to keep things in order. 
In the Time of this Sedition, the Duke of Lancaster 
had been sent into Scotland, to keep the Scots qniet. 
Baker, Chronicles, p. 140. 
In each Citie is an Officer that hath charge of the wals, 
whereby they are kept faire and strong. 
Purehas, Pilgrimage, p. 43d. 
They [Chinese women] are kept constantly to their work, 
being fine Needle-Women, and making many curious Em- 
broideries. Dampier, Voyages, I. 408. 
The sounds we are hearing tend very decidedly to keep 
out of consciousness other sounds of which we wish to 
think. H. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., 98. 
We could not keep him silent ; out he flash'd. 
Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien. 
18. To stay or remain in; refrain from leaving: 
as, to keep the house ; to keep one's bed. 
If any infected person, commanded to keepe house, shall 
contrarie to such Commandment wilfullie and contemp- 
tuously goe abroade, etc. 
Laws of James I. (1603), quoted in Ribton-Turner's 
[Vagrants and Vagrancy, p. 135. 
The Prince had newly got a Fall off a Horse, and kept 
his Chamber. Howett, Letters, I. iv. 1. 
Have you observ'd a sitting Hare, 
List ning, and fearful of the Storm 
Of Horns and Hounds, clap back her Ear, 
Afraid to keep or leave her Form? 
Prior, The Dove, st. 13. 
19f. To maintain habitually: same &skee]> i//j. 
It [the river] keepeth almost as terrible a noyse as the 
river Cocytus in Hell. Coryat, Crudities, I. 85. 
20. To scare away: same as keep off: as, to 
keep crows. [Prov. Eng.] 21. To maintain 
a regular record of or in ; have or take charge 
of entering or making entries in: as, to ker/> 
accounts ; to keep the books of a firm ; to keep 
a diary. 
The Governor or chief of the Factory ought to know 
more than barely how to buy, sell, and keep accounts. 
Dampier, Voyages, II. i. 10;J. 
To keep a good house, a length, a line. See the nouns. 
To keep an act, to hold an academical disputation. 
See act, n., 5. 
The students of the flrst classis that have been thi-se 
four yceres trained up in University learning . . . have 
. . . lately kept two solemn Acts for their Commencement. 
Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 245. 
keep 
To keep an eye on, to keep at arm's-length, to keep 
a term. See the nouns. To keep back, (n) To re- 
serve; withhold; fail to deliver, disclose, or communicate. 
I will keep nothing back from you. Jer. xlii. 4. 
A certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, 
sold a possession, and kept back part of the price. Acts v. 2. 
(b) To restrain ; hold back. 
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. 
Ps. xix. IX 
A conscientious praise of God will keep us back from all 
false and mean praises, all fulsome and servile flatteries, 
such as are in use among men. 
Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. i. 
To keep chapel, at Oxford and Cambridge, in England, 
to attend service in the college chapel. 
The Undergraduate is expected to go to chapel eight 
times, or, in academic parlance, to keep eight chapels a 
week. C. A. Bristed, English University, p. 32. 
To keep company, compass, consortt, count. See 
the nouns. To keep counsel, to keep secret the matter 
and result of a confidential discussion ; be discreet or silent. 
TO keep cut wltht, to follow the example of. 
that a boy should so keep cut with his mother, and be 
given to dissembling ! 
Middleton, More Dissemblers Besides Women, i. 4. 
To keep down, to prevent from rising; hold in subjec- 
tion ; restrain. Specifically (a) In painting, to subdue 
in tone or tint, so that the portion of a picture kept down 
is rendered subordinate to some other part, and therefore 
does not obtrude on the eye of the spectator, (ft) In print- 
ing, to set in lower-case type, as a word or initial letter. 
To keep early or late hours, to Ire customarily early or 
late (as the case may be) in returning home or in going to 
bed. See hour. 
What early philosophic hours he keeps, 
How regular his meals, how sound he sleeps ! 
Cowper, Retirement, 1. 428. 
To keep house. See house^. To keep In. (a) To pre 
vent from escaping ; hold in confinement ; specifically, to 
detain (a pupil) in the schoolroom after hours, either as 
a punishment for misconduct or in order that a lesson 
may be mastered. (6) To conceal ; avoid telling or dis- 
closing, (c) To restrain; curb, as a horse. To keep It 
up, to continue anything vigorously, especially a frolic ; 
persist in merriment. [Colloq.J 
We keeps it up for half an hour, or an hour ... if the 
browns tumble in welL 
Mayhem, London Labour and London Poor, III. 57. 
To keep Off, to hinder from approach or attack : as, to 
keep off &\i enemy or an evil. 
If they would not do his Commandments, but despise 
his Statutes and abhor his Judgments, all the care and 
policy they could use would not be able to keep o^the most 
dismal judgments which ever befell a Nation. 
Stulimjfleet, Sermons, II. iv. 
Far beyond, 
Imagined more than seen, the skirts of France 
"God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off." 
Tennyson, Princess, Conclusion. 
To keep one at a distance. See distance. to keep 
one going In (something), to keep one supplied with (it). 
He kept us going in sherry. F. W. Farrar, Julian Home. 
To keep one's countenance, distance, foott. See the 
nouns. To keep one's feet, to maintain one's footing; 
avoid falling. 
It was with the greatest difficulty that she kept her feet. 
Lever, One of Them, p. 444. 
To keep one's hand In, to keep up one's acquirements ; 
maintain one's skill by practice. To keep one's self 
to one's self, to shun society ; keep one's own counsel ; 
keep aloof from others ; keep close. 
"Stay then a little," answer'd Julian, "here, 
And keep yourself, none knowing, to yourself." 
Tennyson, Lover's Tale, iv. 
To keep open house. See housei. To keep out, to 
hinder from entering or taking possession. 
No iron gate, no spiked and panelled door, 
Can keep out death, the postman, or the bore. 
0. W. Holmes, A Modest Request 
To keep the bones green. See greeni.lo keep the 
crown of the causey. See crown. To keep the field, 
the house, the peace, etc. See the nouns. To keep 
the laud aboard (naut.). See aboard^. To keep the 
luff, or the wind (naut.), to continue close to the wind. 
To keep time, touch, etc. See the nouns. To keep 
under, to restrain; hold in subjection or under control. 
Need and poverty doth hold down and keep under stout 
courages, and maketh them patient perforce, taking from 
them bold and rebelling stomachs. 
Sir T. More, Utopia (tr. by Robinson), i. 
1 keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. 
1 Cor. ix. 27. 
The fire was kept under for the rest of the day, but all 
attempts to extinguish it were vain. 
Lecky, Eng. in 18th Cent., xv. 
To keep up. (a) To support ; hold in an existing state 
or condition ; prevent from lapsing ; as, to keep up the price 
of goods ; to keep up one's credit. 
Ptolemy had been a soldier from his infancy, and conse- 
quently kept up a proper military force, that made him 
everywhere respected in these warlike and unsettled times. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, I. 457. 
He would undertake to prove before a committee of the 
House of Commons that there existed a combination to 
keep up the price of muffins. 
Dickens, Nicholas Nlckleby, ii. 
(b) To maintain ; continue; prevent cessation of. 
Little disputes and quarrels . . . are chiefly kept up and 
bandied to and fro by those who have nothing else to do. 
Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, II. xxiv. 
