How do you use the word "keep" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "keep" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "keep": It's useless to keep on thinking any more. My parents keep arguing about stupid things. It's so annoying!

Keep Meaning

/kiːp/

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbTo continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.

verbTo remain faithful to a given promise or word.

Sentence Examples

It's useless to keep on thinking any more.

My parents keep arguing about stupid things. It's so annoying!

It is important to keep calm in an emergency.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

hold support continue

Antonyms:

lose discontinue

CEFR Practice Quiz

Please ____ the door closed to prevent the cold air from coming inside.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

You should ____ a close eye on the thermometer to make sure that the oven does not get too hot tonight.

Word Origin & History

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).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"Both day and night did we keep company." — c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

"Within the Portal as I kept my Watch, / Swift gliding Shadows by the glimm'ring Moon, I could perceive in Forms of armed Men, / Poſſeſſ the Space that borders on the Porch— […]" — 1749, [Tobias George Smollett], The Regicide: Or, James the First, of Scotland. A Tragedy. […], London: […] [F]or the benefit of the author, →OCLC, Act V, scene v, page 70:

"Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered.[…]The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold." — 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

"She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill." — 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

"Metrocles somewhat indiscreetly, as he was disputing in his Schole, in presence of his auditory, let a fart, for shame whereof he afterwards kept his house and could not be drawen abroad[…]." — 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

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