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more about keep
keep |
6 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Keep \Keep\ (k[=e]p), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Kept}; p. pr & vb n. {Keeping}.] [OE. k?pen, AS c?pan to keep regard, desire, await, take betake; cf AS copenere lover, OE copnien to desire.] 1. To care to desire. [Obs.] I kepe not of armes for to yelp [boast]. --Chaucer. 2. To hold to restrain from departure or removal; not to let go of to retain in one's power or possession; not to lose; to retain; to detain. If we lose the field, We can not keep the town. --Shak. That I may know what keeps me here with you --Dryden. If we would weigh and keep in our minds what we are considering, that would instruct us --Locke. 3. To cause to remain in a given situation or condition; to maintain unchanged; to hold or preserve in any state or tenor. His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal. --Milton. Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on --Addison. Note: In this sense it is often used with prepositions and adverbs, as to keep away to keep down to keep from to keep in out or off etc ``To keep off impertinence and solicitation from his superior.'' --Addison. 4. To have in custody; to have in some place for preservation; to take charge of The crown of Stephanus first king of Hungary, was always kept in the castle of Vicegrade --Knolles. 5. To preserve from danger, harm, or loss to guard. Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee. --Gen. xxviii. 15. 6. To preserve from discovery or publicity; not to communicate, reveal, or betray, as a secret. Great are thy virtues . . . though kept from man. --Milton. 7. To attend upon to have the care of to tend. 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. In her girlish age, she kept sheep on the moor. --Carew. 8. To record transactions, accounts, or events in as to keep books, a journal, etc.; also to enter (as accounts, records, etc ) in a book. 9. To maintain, as an establishment, institution, or the like to conduct; to manage; as to keep store. Like a pedant that keeps a school. --Shak. Every one of them kept house by himself. --Hayward. 10. To supply with necessaries of life; to entertain; as to keep boarders. 11. To have in one's service; to have and maintain, as an assistant, a servant, a mistress, a horse, etc I keep but three men and a boy. --Shak. 12. To have habitually in stock for sale. 13. To continue in as a course or mode of action not to intermit or fall from to hold to to maintain; as to keep silence; to keep one's word to keep possession. Both day and night did we keep company. --Shak. Within this portal as I kept my watch. --Smollett. 14. To observe; to adhere to to fulfill; not to swerve from or violate; to practice or perform, as duty; not to neglect; to be faithful to I have kept the faith. --2 Tim. iv 7. Him whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command. --Milton. 15. To confine one's self to not to quit to remain in as to keep one's house, room bed, etc.; hence to haunt; to frequent. --Shak. 'Tis hallowed ground; Fairies, and fawns, and satyrs do it keep --J. Fletcher. 16. To observe duty, as a festival, etc.; to celebrate; to solemnize; as to keep a feast. I went with them to the house of God . . . with a multitude that kept holyday. --Ps. xlii 4. {To keep at arm's length}. See under {Arm}, n. {To keep back}. a To reserve; to withhold. ``I will keep nothing back from you.'' --Jer. xlii 4. b To restrain; to hold back ``Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.'' --Ps. xix. 13. {To keep company with}. a To frequent the society of to associate with as let youth keep company with the wise and good. b To accompany; to go with as to keep company with one on a voyage; also to pay court to or accept attentions from with a view to marriage. [Colloq.] {To keep counsel}. See under {Counsel}, n. {To keep down}. a To hold in subjection; to restrain; to hinder. b (Fine Arts) To subdue in tint or tone, as a portion of a picture, so that the spectator's attention may not be diverted from the more important parts of the work {To keep good} (or {bad}) {hours}, to be customarily early (or late) in returning home or in retiring to rest. -- {To keep house}. a To occupy a separate house or establishment, as with one's family, as distinguished from boarding; to manage domestic affairs. b (Eng. Bankrupt Law) To seclude one's self in one's house in order to evade the demands of creditors. -- {To keep one's hand in}, to keep in practice. -- {To keep open house}, to be hospitable. -- {To keep the peace} (Law), to avoid or to prevent a breach of the peace. -- {To keep school}, to govern, manage and instruct or teach a school, as a preceptor. -- {To keep a stiff upper lip}, to keep up one's courage. [Slang] -- {To keep term}. a (Eng. Universities) To reside during a term. b (Inns of Court) To eat a sufficient number of dinners in hall to make the term count for the purpose of being called to the bar. [Eng.] --Mozley & W. {To keep touch}. See under {Touch}, n. {To keep under}, to hold in subjection; hence to oppress. {To keep up}. a To maintain; to prevent from falling or diminution; as to keep up the price of goods; to keep up one's credit. b To maintain; to continue; to prevent from ceasing. ``In joy, that which keeps up the action is the desire to continue it.'' --Locke. Syn: To retain; detain; reserve; preserve; hold restrain; maintain; sustain; support; withhold. -- To {Keep}. Usage: {Retain}, {Preserve}. Keep is the generic term, and is often used where retain or preserve would too much restrict the meaning; as to keep silence, etc Retain denotes that we keep or hold things as against influences which might deprive us of them or reasons which might lead us to give them up as to retain vivacity in old age; to retain counsel in a lawsuit; to retain one's servant after a reverse of fortune. Preserve denotes that we keep a thing against agencies which might lead to its being destroyed or broken in upon as to preserve one's health; to preserve appearances. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Keep \Keep\, v. i. 1. To remain in any position or state; to continue; to abide; to stay; as to keep at a distance; to keep aloft; to keep near to keep in the house; to keep before or behind; to keep in favor; to keep out of company, or out reach. 2. To last to endure; to remain unimpaired. If the malt be not thoroughly dried, the ale it makes will not keep --Mortimer. 3. To reside for a time; to lodge; to dwell. [Now disused except locally or colloquially.] Knock at his study, where they say he keeps. --Shak. 4. To take care to be solicitous; to watch. [Obs.] Keep that the lusts choke not the word of God that is in us --Tyndale. 5. To be in session; as school keeps to-day. [Colloq.] {To keep from}, to abstain or refrain from {To keep in with}, to keep on good terms with as to keep in with an opponent. {To keep on}, to go forward; to proceed; to continue to advance. {To keep to}, to adhere strictly to not to neglect or deviate from as to keep to old customs; to keep to a rule to keep to one's word or promise. {To keep up}, to remain unsubdued; also not to be confined to one's bed. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Keep \Keep\, n. 1. The act or office of keeping; custody; guard; care heed; charge. --Chaucer. Pan, thou god of shepherds all Which of our tender lambkins takest keep --Spenser. 2. The state of being kept; hence the resulting condition; case; as to be in good keep 3. The means or provisions by which one is kept; maintenance; support; as the keep of a horse. Grass equal to the keep of seven cows. --Carlyle. I performed some services to the college in return for my keep --T. Hughes. 4. That which keeps or protects; a stronghold; a fortress; a castle; specifically, the strongest and securest part of a castle, often used as a place of residence by the lord of the castle, especially during a siege; the donjon. See Illust. of {Castle}. The prison strong, Within whose keep the captive knights were laid. --Dryden. The lower chambers of those gloomy keeps. --Hallam. I think . . . the keep or principal part of a castle, was so called because the lord and his domestic circle kept, abode, or lived there --M. A. Lower. 5. That which is kept in charge; a charge. [Obs.] Often he used of his keep A sacrifice to bring --Spenser. 6. (Mach.) A cap for retaining anything as a journal box, in place {To take keep}, to take care to heed. [Obs.] --Chaucer. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: In \In\, prep. [AS. in akin to D. & G. in Icel. [=i], Sw & Dan. i, OIr. & L. in Gr 'en. [root]197. Cf 1st {In-}, {Inn}.] The specific signification of in is situation or place with respect to surrounding, environment, encompassment, etc It is used with verbs signifying being resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part In its different applications, it approaches some of the meanings of and sometimes is interchangeable with within, into on at of and among. It is used: 1. With reference to space or place as he lives in Boston; he traveled in Italy; castles in the air. The babe lying in a manger. --Luke ii 16. Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west. --Shak. Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude. --Gibbon. Matter for censure in every page. --Macaulay. 2. With reference to circumstances or conditions; as he is in difficulties; she stood in a blaze of light. ``Fettered in amorous chains.'' --Shak. Wrapt in sweet sounds, as in bright veils. --Shelley. 3. With reference to a whole which includes or comprises the part spoken of as the first in his family; the first regiment in the army. Nine in ten of those who enter the ministry. --Swift. 4. With reference to physical surrounding, personal states, etc., abstractly denoted; as I am in doubt; the room is in darkness; to live in fear. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? --Shak. 5. With reference to character, reach, scope, or influence considered as establishing a limitation; as to be in one's favor. ``In sight of God's high throne.'' --Milton. Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh. --Cowper. 6. With reference to movement or tendency toward a certain limit or environment; -- sometimes equivalent to into as to put seed in the ground; to fall in love; to end in death; to put our trust in God. He would not plunge his brother in despair. --Addison. She had no jewels to deposit in their caskets. --Fielding. 7. With reference to a limit of time; as in an hour; it happened in the last century; in all my life. {In as much as}, or {Inasmuch as}, in the degree that in like manner as in consideration that because that since. See {Synonym} of {Because}, and cf {For as much as}, under {For}, prep. {In that}, because for the reason that ``Some things they do in that they are men . . .; some things in that they are men misled and blinded with error.'' --Hooker. {In the name of}, in behalf of on the part of by authority; as it was done in the name of the people; -- often used in invocation, swearing, praying, and the like {To be in for it}. a To be in favor of a thing to be committed to a course. b To be unable to escape from a danger, penalty, etc [Colloq.] {To be} (or {keep}) {in with}. a To be close or near as to keep a ship in with the land. b To be on terms of friendship, familiarity, or intimacy with to secure and retain the favor of [Colloq.] Syn: Into within; on at See {At}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: keep n 1: the financial means whereby one lives; "each child was expected to pay for their keep"; "he applied to the state for support"; "he could no longer earn his own livelihood" [syn: {support}, {livelihood}, {living}, {bread and butter}, {sustenance}] 2: the main tower within the walls of a medieval castle or fortress [syn: {dungeon}, {donjon}] 3: a cell in a jail or prison [syn: {hold}] v 1: keep in a certain state, position, or activity; e.g., "keep clean"; "hold in place"; "She always held herself as a lady" [syn: {maintain}, {hold}] 2: continue a certain state, condition, or activity; "Keep on working!" "We continued to work into the night"; "Keep smiling"; "We went on working until well past midnight" [syn: {continue}, {go on}, {proceed}, {go along}, {keep on}] [ant: {discontinue}] 3: retain possession of [syn: {hold on}] [ant: {lose}] 4: prevent from doing something or being in a certain state; "We must prevent the cancer from spreading" [syn: {prevent}] [ant: {let}] 5: conform one's action or practice to of appointments, promises, conditions, etc [syn: {observe}] 6: observe correctly; "keep time, keep count keep track of" [syn: {observe}, {maintain}] 7: look after be the keeper of have charge of "He keeps the bees on the estate" 8: maintain by writing regular records; "keep a diary"; "maintain a record"; "keep notes" [syn: {maintain}] 9: maintain or support; "He is keeping three women in the guest cottage" 10: allow to remain in a place or position; "We cannot continue several servants any longer" [syn: {retain}, {continue}, {keep on}] 11: supply with sustenance [syn: {sustain}, {maintain}] 12: fail to spoil or rot; "These potatoes keep for a long time" [syn: {stay fresh}] 13: celebrate, as of holidays or rites; "Keep the commandments"; "celebrate Christmas"; "Observe Yom Kippur" [syn: {observe}, {celebrate}] 14: keep under control [syn: {restrain}, {keep back}, {hold back}] 15: maintain in safety form injury, harm, or danger; "May God keep you" [syn: {preserve}] 16: retain rights to as of a job or a seat [syn: {keep open}, {hold open}, {save}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: KEEP v.t. He willed away his whole estate, And then in death he fell asleep, Murmuring: "Well, at any rate, My name unblemished I shall keep." But when upon the tomb 'twas wrought Whose was it? -- for the dead keep naught. Durang Gophel Arn
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