Word Meanings - KEEP - Book Publishers vocabulary database

k, AS.c to keep, regard, desire, await, take, betake; cf. AS. 1. To care; to desire. I kepe not of armes for to yelp . 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

Additional info about word: KEEP

k, AS.c to keep, regard, desire, await, take, betake; cf. AS. 1. To care; to desire. I kepe not of armes for to yelp . 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 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. To reserve; to withhold. "I will keep nothing back from you." Jer. xlii. 4. To restrain; to hold back. "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins." Ps. xix. 13. -- To keep company with. To frequent the society of; to associate with; as, let youth keep company with the wise and good. 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. -- To keep counsel. See under Counsel, n. -- To keep down. To hold in subjection; to restrain; to hinder. 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 hours, to be customarily early in returning home or in retiring to rest. -- To keep house. To occupy a separate house or establishment, as with one's family, as distinguished from boarding; to manage domestic affairs. 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 , 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. -- To keep term. To reside during a term. To eat a sufficient number of dinners in hall to make the term count for the purpose of being called to the bar. Mozley & W. -- To keep touch. See under Touch, n. -- To keep under, to hold in subjection; hence, to oppress. -- To keep up. To maintain; to prevent from falling or diminution; as, to keep up the price of goods; to keep up one's credit. 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. 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.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of KEEP)

• Commemorate
• Perpetuate
• celebrate
• solemnize
• keep
• Detain
• Stay
• arrest
• check
• withhold
• delay
• restrain
• embargo
• stop
• Have
• Own
• possess
• feel
• entertain
• accept
• bear
• enjoy
• Hold
• Keep
• grasp
• retain
• support
• defend
• maintain
• occupy
• sustain
• regard
• consider
• cohere
• continue
• have
• Refrain
• Forbear
• hold
• abstain
• desist from

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of KEEP)

• Release
• dismiss
• liberate
• free
• discharge
• expedite
• Loose
• instigate
• accelerate
• license
• indulge
• allow
• abet
• Miss
• overlook
• disregard
• despise
• dislike
• contemn
• hate
• loathe
• misconsider
• misconceive
• misestimate
• misjudge
• Drop
• betray
• surrender
• abandon
• discontinue
• oppose
• discourage
• weaken
• exhaust
• thwart
• discountenance
• disfavor
• subvert
• suppress

Related words: (words related to KEEP)

• DISREGARDFULLY
  Negligently; heedlessly.
• CHECKWORK
  Anything made so as to form alternate squares lke those of a checkerboard.
• MAINTAIN
  by the hand; main hand + F. tenir to hold . See 1. To hold or keep in any particular state or condition; to support; to sustain; to uphold; to keep up; not to suffer to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace;
• DISMISSIVE
  Giving dismission.
• SUSTAIN
  F. soutenir (the French prefix is properly fr. L. subtus below, fr. sub under), L. sustinere; pref. sus- + tenere to hold. See 1. To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support; as, a foundation sustains the superstructure; a beast sustains
• ACCEPTABLE
  Capable, worthy, or sure of being accepted or received with pleasure; pleasing to a receiver; gratifying; agreeable; welcome; as, an acceptable present, one acceptable to us.
• SUPPORTABLE
  Capable of being supported, maintained, or endured; endurable. -- Sup*port"a*ble*ness, n. -- Sup*port"a*bly, adv.
• MISJUDGE
  To judge erroneously or unjustly; to err in judgment; to misconstrue.
• POSSESSIVE
  Of or pertaining to possession; having or indicating possession. Possessive case , the genitive case; the case of nouns and pronouns which expresses ownership, origin, or some possessive relation of one thing to another; as, Homer's admirers; the
• SUPPORTATION
  Maintenance; support. Chaucer. Bacon.
• RELEASE
  To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.
• ACCEPT
  To receive as obligatory and promise to pay; as, to accept a bill of exchange. Bouvier. 6. In a deliberate body, to receive in acquittance of a duty imposed; bill , to agree to pay it when due. -- To accept service , to agree that a writ or
• RESTRAINABLE
  Capable of being restrained; controllable. Sir T. Browne.
• SOLEMNIZE
  1. To perform with solemn or ritual ceremonies, or according to legal forms. Baptism to be administered in one place, and marriage solemnized in another. Hooker. 2. To dignify or honor by ceremonies; to celebrate. Their choice nobility and flowers
• CONSIDERINGLY
  With consideration or deliberation.
• DISMISSAL
  Dismission; discharge. Officeholders were commanded faithfully to enforce it, upon pain of immediate dismissal. Motley.
• PERPETUATE
  To make perpetual; to cause to endure, or to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion; to eternize. Addison. Burke.
• ALLOWEDLY
  By allowance; admittedly. Shenstone.
• SUPPRESSOR
  One who suppresses.
• SUSTAINABLE
  Capable of being sustained or maintained; as, the action is not sustainable.
• HALLOW
  To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. "Hallowed be thy name." Matt. vi. 9. Hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein. Jer. xvii. 24. His secret altar touched with hallowed
• CALLOW
  1. Destitute of feathers; naked; unfledged. An in the leafy summit, spied a nest, Which, o'er the callow young, a sparrow pressed. Dryden. 2. Immature; boyish; "green"; as, a callow youth. I perceive by this, thou art but a callow maid. Old Play .
• THRYFALLOW
  To plow for the third time in summer; to trifallow. Tusser.
• SALLOWISH
  Somewhat sallow. Dickens.
• UNCONSIDERED
  Not considered or attended to; not regarded; inconsiderable; trifling. A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. Shak.