keep

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the financial means whereby one lives

   each child was expected to pay for their keep

2. 2
   verb

   maintain by writing regular records

   keep a diary

3. 3
   verb

   retain possession of

   Can I keep my old stuffed animals?

4. 4
   verb

   look after

   be the keeper of

5. 5
   verb

   maintain for use and service

   I keep a car in the countryside

6. 6
   verb

   have as a supply

   I always keep batteries in the freezer

7. 7
   verb

   store or keep customarily

   Where do you keep your gardening tools?

8. 8
   verb

   retain rights to

   keep my job for me while I give birth

Etymology

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 (zabóta, “care, worry”)). The dialectal sense of the verb meaning “to put back” or “put away” may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare Welsh cadw and Mandarin 收 (shōu).