Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Preterit and past participle of keep.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imp. & p. p. of keep.
  • a concubine; a woman supported by a man as his paramour.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of keep.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (especially of promises or contracts) not violated or disregarded

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Snowball, therefore, did not trouble himself to scan the sea on either side of their course; but for all that he kept the look-out enjoined on him by the sailor, -- that is, he _kept it with his ears_!

    The Ocean Waifs A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea Mayne Reid 1850

  • I knew a man from the north who, though married to a respectable southern woman, kept two of these mulatto girls in an upper room at his store; his wife told some of her friends that he had not lodged at home for two weeks together, I have seen these two _kept misses_, as they are there called, at his store; he was afterwards stabbed in an attempt to arrest a runaway slave, and died in about ten days.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • I knew a man from the north who, though married to a respectable southern woman, kept two of these mulatto girls in an upper room at his store; his wife told some of her friends that he had not lodged at home for two weeks together, I have seen these two _kept misses_, as they are there called, at his store; he was afterwards stabbed in an attempt to arrest a runaway slave, and died in about ten days.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • I believe that one-third out of the number of days in the year are “kept holy,” or rather, _kept stupid_, in honour of the saints; no great portion of the time thus set apart is spent in religious exercises, and the people don’t betake themselves to any such animating pastimes as might serve to strengthen the frame, or invigorate the mind, or exalt the taste.

    Eothen, or, Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East Alexander William Kinglake 1850

  • This impeccably chosen set of ballads and booty-shakers - finally getting an official release after McGraw's legal dispute with his label kept it under wraps for nearly two years - shows McGraw's range while it honors contemporary country's paradigms.

    News 2012

  • This impeccably chosen set of ballads and booty-shakers - finally getting an official release after McGraw's legal dispute with his label kept it under wraps for nearly two years - shows his range while it honors contemporary country's paradigms.

    News 2012

  • People from the label kept stopping by and offering their opinions.

    Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer Jen Sincero 2002

  • People from the label kept stopping by and offering their opinions.

    Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer Jen Sincero 2002

  • People from the label kept stopping by and offering their opinions.

    Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer Jen Sincero 2002

  • And then the label kept telling us it was rouge and red and that it “is much bigger than it appears to be.”

    Of Two Minds on a Red 2009

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