keep

(kép), v.; pret. and pp. kept, ppr. keeping. [ keep When thou borrow est, keepe thy day though it be to thy payne. Babees Book (E. B. T. 8.), p. 98. But, abstracting from the reason, let us consider who keeps the precept best. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), IT. 265. 3. To celebrate or observe with all due formalities 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 Christmas. Walpole, Letters, II. 139. 4, Tohold; have or carry on: as, to keep court; to keep an act at a university. In the same Towne there ys a merkett, wekely kepte, and hayyng in yt abowt M.D. houselyng peaple. English Gilds (KE. E. T. 8.), p. 222. Chambery is the Cap it all City of Savoy, wherein they Keep their Parliament. Coryat, Crudities, I. 79. 5. To tend; care for; have the charge, oversight, or custody of. They did apoynt four men of the mannor to keepe the wood, for the profitt of the tenants commodyty of the mannor, English Gilds (E. E. T. 8.), p. 487. 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 dre 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, lo , decay, ete.: 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 (BE. ©, T. 8.), 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 you sand 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 po e ion of; retain in one’s own power or po e ion; 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 Straunge res, but the i cone not kepen it. Mandeville, Travels, p. 252. My Memory hath kept the bad, and let go the good. Howell, Letters, I. vi. 51. 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 breathle into the shop, fiercely demanding yeast;.. the poor gentlewoman, with her cold shyne 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, IT. 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. Marston, 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. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 234, 11. To maintain or carry on, as an establishment, institution, busine , ete.; conduct;, manage: 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 ther nys no wyf the hous to kepe. Chaucer, Merchant's Tale, 1. 138. 3270 Tf he love her not, Let me be no a istant for a state, But keep a farm and carters. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2, 167. The court also sent for Mrs. Hutch in son, 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 Paris I saw kept, in all the parts of it, with the most exact cleanline and neatne , Gardens and all. Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 188. 12}. 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 aray, To kepe the King that ilk day. Sir Ywain, MS. Cotton, ap. Warton, iii. 108, 131. [(Jamie son.) Againe the comyng of Jhesu Criste To kepe him when he doun sal come. Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1. 5028. 13. To take in and provide for; entertain. Call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term, Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. Shak., Hen.V., ii. 1, 83. 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, Progre 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 confinement, E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, I, 291. 15. To hold or hold back; restrain. In chambur among ladyes bry3th, Kepe thy tonge & spende thy sygth. Babees Book (E. E. T, 8.), p. 15. I have kept you from a crying sin would damn you To men and time. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, vy. 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 King do me of Sicilia. Capt. John Smith, True Travels, I. 7. Her servants’ eyes were fix’d upon her face, And, as she moy’d or turn’d, her motions view’d, Her measures cept, and step by step pursued. Dryden. Justice is an old lame hobbling beldame, and I can’t get her to keep pace with Generosity for the soul of me. Sheridan, School for Scandal, iv. 1. 17. To cause to be or continue in some specified 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 quiet. Baker, Chronicles, p. 140. In each Citie is an Officer that hath charge of the wals, whereby they are kept faire and strong. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 436. They [Chinese women] are kept constantly to their work, being fine Needle-Women, and making many curious Embroideries. Dampier, Voyages, I. 408. The sounds we are hearing tend very decidedly to keep out of consciousne 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 wilful lie and contemptuously 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. Howell, Letters, I. iv. 1, Have you obsery'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. 19}. To maintain habitually: same as keep up. 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 keep 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 /eep accounts. Dampier, Voyages, II. i. 103. 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 first cla is that have been these four yeeres frained up in University learning... have lately kept two solemn Acts for their Commencement. Ma . Hist. Coll., 1, 245. > keep-*725 To keep an eye on, to mead? at arm’s-1 to keep aterm. See the nouns.—To keep back. (a) To reserve; withhold; fail to deliver, disclose, or communicate I will keep nothing back from you. Jer. xiii. 4, A certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a po e ion, and kept back part of the price. Acts y. 2. (6) To restrain; hold back, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Ps. xix. 13. 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, compa , consort, count. See the nouns.— To keep counsel, to keep secret the matter and result of a confidential discu ion; be discreet or silent. —To keep cut witht, to follow the example of. O that a boy should so keep cut with his mother, and be given to di embling! Middle ton, More Di emblers Besides Women, i. 4. To keep down, to prevent from rising; hold in subjection; restrain. Specifically —(a) In painting, to subdue in tone or tint, so that the portion of a picture down is rendered subordinate to some other part, and therefore does not obtrude on the eye of the spectator. (b) In printing, to set in lower-case type, as a word or initial letter.— To keep early or late hours, to be 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 housel.—To keep in. (a) To prevent 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 le on may be mastered. (b) To conceal; avoid telling or disclosing. (c) To restrain; curb, as a horse.—To keep it up, to continue anything vigorously, especially a frolic; persist in merriment. [Colloq.] We keeps it up for half an hour, or an hour, if the browns tumble in well. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. 57, To keep off, to hinder from approach or attack: as, to keep off an enemy or an eyil. 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 off the most dismal judgments which ever befell a Nation. Stilling fleet, Sermons, IT. iv. Far beyond, Imagined more than seen, the skirts of France..... “God ble the narrow sea which keeps her off.” Tennyson, Prince , Conclusion, To keep one at a distance. See distance,—To kee 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. D 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 housel.—To keep out, to hinder from entering or taking po e ion. No iron gate, no spiked and panelled door, Can keep out death, the postman, or the bore. O. W. Holmes, A Modest Request. To keep the bones green. See greenl.—To keep the crown of the causey. See crown.—To keep the field, the house, the bse: etc. See the nouns.—To keep the land aboard (naut.). See aboard1.—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. I 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 consequently 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 Nickle by, ii. (6) To maintain; continue; prevent ce ation of. Little disputes and quarrels are chiefly kept wp and bandied to and fro by those who have nothing else to do. Bp, Atterbury, Sermons, II. xxiv, 613 ee keep — In joy, that which keeps up the action is the desire to continue it, Locke. (c) To maintain in good order or condition: as, to pay so much a year to keep up a grave.—To keep up to the collar, to keep hard at work; “keep at it”: in allusion to the straining of a working horse against his collar. [Colloq.] Not that he neglected these [the proper studies of the place], for Hardy kept him pretty well up to the collar, and he pa ed his little go creditably. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, IT. xii. =Syn. 7, etc. Keep, Retain, Reserve, Keep isa very general idiomatic word, meaning, in this relation, not to dispose of or part with; hold on to: as, to sell half and keep half. Retain covers the idea of not giving up where there is occasion or opportunity: as, to surrender on condition that the officers retain their side-arms. ‘To reserve is to keep back at a time or in an act in which other things are given up; also, to keep back for a time: as, to reserve judgment. They only fall, that strive to move, Or lose, that care to keep. Owen Meredith, Wanderer, iii. Why should not man, Retaining still divine similitude In part, from such deformities be free? Milton, P. L., xi. 512. Hast thou not reserved a ble ing for me? Gen. xxvii. 36. These jests are out of season; Reserve them till a merrier hour than this. Shak., C. of E., i. 2, 69. 6. Keep, Defend, Protect, Shelter, Preserve. Keep is the general word in this relation also. To defend is to keep by warding off attacks; the word does not so much imply succe as the others do. To protect is to keep by covering from danger. To shelter is to keep by covering on one side, or on all sides, especially above, from exposure. Shelter seems figurative when not applied to keeping from exposure to the weather, and protect and defend when not applied to the physical. To preserve is in various senses to protect or keep from destruction or injury: as, to preserve forests, the bank of a river, fruit, vested rights, life, or one’s dignity. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Ps, cxxi. 4. Nor could the Muse defend Her son, Milton, P. L., vii. 37. In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. G. P. Morris, Woodman, Spare that Tree! History has sometimes been called a gallery, where in living forms are preserved the scenes, the incidents, and the characters of the past. Sumner, Orations, I. 201. 2 and 3, Observe, Commemorate, etc. See celebrate. II. in trans. 1+. To care; be solicitous. “Sir preest,” he seyde, ‘‘I kepe han [to have] no loos Of my craft, for I wolde it kept were cloos.” Chaucer, Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, 1. 357. The third me thinks shruggingly saith, I kept not to sit sleeping with my Poesie till a Queene came and ki ed me. Putten ham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 15. 2t. To take care; be on the watch; be heedful. Keep that the lusts shake not the word of God that is in us. Tyndale. 3. To lodge; dwell; hold one’s self, as in an abiding-place. [Now colloq. or rare.] Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps. Shak., Tit. And., v. 2, 5. The Tarentines [Indians]. rifled a wigwam where Mr, Cradock’s men kept to catch sturgeon, took away their nets and biscuit, . Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 72. But yet he could not keep Here with the shepherds and the silly sheep. M. Arnold, Thyrsis. He was foolish enough to tell where these quail kept in his orchard. Forest and Stream, XXVIII. 252. 4, To keep one’s self; remain; stay; continue: as, to keep at a distance; to keep in with some one; to keep out of sight; hence, in familiar speech, used with a present participle almost as an auxiliary of continuous or repeated action: as, he keeps moving; she kept erying out; they have kept asking for it this hour past. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. Shak., Hamlet, iii. 1, 156, The Privateers keep out of their way, having always Intelligence where they [the Barra lav ent a fleet] are. Dampier, Voyages, II. ii. 126. We kept down the left bank of the river for a little distance, and then struck into the woods. B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 48. Innumerable instances are known to every naturalist of species keeping true, or not varying at all, although living under the most opposite climates. Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 139. All the place is holy ground;.. So keep where you are: you are foul with sin. Tennyson, The Poet's Mind, 5. To last; endure; continue unimpaired. If the malt is not thoroughly dried, the ale it makes will not keep. Mortimer, Husbandry. The best fruits of the season fall latest and keep the longest. Alcott, Tablets, p. 134. The dam was a subject of conversation that would keep. George Eliot, Mill on the Flo , i. 3. To keep at it, to continue hard at work; persist. [Colloqg.J— To keep dark. See darkl.—To keep from, to abstain from; refrain from; remain away from. I should kick, being kick’d; and, being at that pa , You would keep from my heels, Shak., C, of E,, iii. 1, 19, 206 3271 keeping To keep in with. See inl, adv.—To keep on, to go keeper of the seals; a housekeeper; a game forward; proceed; continue to advance. keeper. The Pontic sea, Hit speketh of riche men ryght nouht ne of riche lordes, Whose icy current and compulsive course Bote of clenne e and of clerkes and kepers of bestes. Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Pro pontic and the Hellespont. Piers Plowman (C), xv. 88, Shak., Othello, iii. 3, 455. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? To keep to, to adhere strictly to; avoid neglecting or And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? deviating from: as, to keep to old customs; to keep to a Gen. iy. 9. rule; to keep to one’s word or promise. Young Logie’s laid in Edinburgh chapel, Car michael’s the keeper o’ the key. Not finding the Govern our keep to his agreement with me; The Laird o’ Logie (Child’s Ballads, IV. 110). nor seeing by his carriage towards others any great reason I had to expect he would, I began to wish my self The persecuted animals [rats] bolted above-ground: the away again. Dampier, Voyages, I. 518. terrier accounted for one, the keeper [gamekeeper] for another. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xlv. Well, if they had kept to that, I should not have been such an enemy to the stage. Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 8. One who maintains or carries on as propri- To keep up, to remain unsubdued, as by illne , age, or etor; an owner or independent controller: as, grief; be yet active, or not confined to one’s bed; not to a storekeeper; an innkeeper. fall behind. [Colloq.] Now here is a man... who is really nothing but a keep (kép),. [