keep

UK[kiːp]US[k̟çi(ː)p]

verbA17 meanings One of the most common words in English · #59 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: kept, keeping, keeps

Keep is to go on having something instead of handing it over. You keep the change, keep your old school photos, keep the receipt in case the shoes do not fit.

From there it spreads everywhere. Keep plus -ing means carry on: keep walking, keep trying, keep asking until someone answers — and never keep to walk. Keep also puts something in a state and holds it there: keep the door open, keep the soup warm, keep quiet, keep someone waiting. It covers storing and looking after — she keeps the spare key under the pot, they keep chickens, he keeps a diary — and promises: you keep a promise, keep a secret, keep an appointment. The past is kept, kept, which surprises learners the first time. A castle keep, the strong tower at the centre, is the same word: the part that holds out.

Definitions of keep

1verbkeepTo continue to have something rather than give it away or lose it.A1~40%
“You can keep the book; I have two copies.”
2verbrepeatedlyTo continue doing something, or to do it repeatedly.A2~2%
“The dog keeps barking at the letterbox.”
3verbcauseTo cause someone or something to stay in a particular place or state.B1~29%
“A rug in the doorway keeps the cold air out.”
4verbstoreTo store something in a regular place.A2~2%
“She keeps the passports in the drawer under the printer.”
5verblookTo look after or maintain something, especially animals or a record.B2~2%
“They keep bees at the end of the garden.”
6verbpromisedTo do what you promised, or to hold to an arrangement.A2~2%
“He keeps his word, even when it costs him.”
7nounstrongestThe strongest central tower of a castle.C1~23%
“The stone keep is the only part of the castle still standing.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

keep an eye on — to watch something or someone carefully
keep up with someone — to move or progress as fast as they do
earn your keep — to be worth what you cost in food and living expenses
keep something to yourself — tell nobody, whether you were asked to or chose to

Where it comes from

Old English cēpan meant to seize, hold and observe, and Middle English kepen meant to guard, look after and watch. Behind them stands Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną, "to look, heed, watch, observe", from a Proto-Indo-European root *ǵāb-, "to look after". The oldest sense is watching over something rather than owning it — still there when you keep a secret or keep an eye on the pan.

Proto-Indo-European
*ǵab-
Proto-Germanic
*kōpijaną — to look, heed, watch, observe
Proto-West Germanic
*kōpijan
Old English
cēpan — to seize, hold, observe
Middle English
kepen — to keep, guard, look after, watch
English, today
keep

Built from

*ǵāb- · Proto-Indo-European — to look after

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 (“care, worry”)). The dialectal keep may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare cadw and cmn 收.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Verbs

Practise this word

keep in the wild

The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms in English common law and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights 1689.
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
Countries that guarantee a right to keep and bear arms include the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Switzerland, the United States, Algeria and Yemen.
Right to keep and bear arms
In it, player characters are based at a keep and investigate a nearby series of caves that are filled with a variety of monsters.
The Keep on the Borderlands
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility.
Keep

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

Definitions of keep

1verbkeepTo continue to have something rather than give it away or lose it.A1~40%

“You can keep the book; I have two copies.”

2verbrepeatedlyTo continue doing something, or to do it repeatedly.A2~2%

“The dog keeps barking at the letterbox.”

3verbcauseTo cause someone or something to stay in a particular place or state.B1~29%

“A rug in the doorway keeps the cold air out.”

4verbstoreTo store something in a regular place.A2~2%

“She keeps the passports in the drawer under the printer.”

5verblookTo look after or maintain something, especially animals or a record.B2~2%

“They keep bees at the end of the garden.”

6verbpromisedTo do what you promised, or to hold to an arrangement.A2~2%

“He keeps his word, even when it costs him.”

7nounstrongestThe strongest central tower of a castle.C1~23%

“The stone keep is the only part of the castle still standing.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.