Definition of kept

"kept" in the verb sense

1. keep, maintain, hold

cause to continue in a certain state, position, or activity e.g., `keep clean'

"hold in place"

"She always held herself as a lady"

"The students keep me on my toes"

2. continue, go on, proceed, go along, keep

continue a certain state, condition, or activity

"Keep on working!"

"We continued to work into the night"

"Keep smiling"

"We went on working until well past midnight"

3. keep, hold on

retain possession of

"Can I keep my old stuffed animals?"

"She kept her maiden name after she married"

4. prevent, keep

stop (someone or something) from doing something or being in a certain state

"We must prevent the cancer from spreading"

"His snoring kept me from falling asleep"

"Keep the child from eating the marbles"

5. observe, keep

conform one's action or practice to

"keep appointments"

"she never keeps her promises"

"We kept to the original conditions of the contract"

6. observe, keep, maintain

stick to correctly or closely

"The pianist kept time with the metronome"

"keep count"

"I cannot keep track of all my employees"

7. keep

look after be the keeper of have charge of

"He keeps the shop when I am gone"

8. keep, maintain

maintain by writing regular records

"keep a diary"

"maintain a record"

"keep notes"

9. keep

supply with room and board

"He is keeping three women in the guest cottage"

"keep boarders"

10. retain, continue, keep, keep on

allow to remain in a place or position or maintain a property or feature

"We cannot continue several servants any longer"

"She retains a lawyer"

"The family's fortune waned and they could not keep their household staff"

"Our grant has run out and we cannot keep you on"

"We kept the work going as long as we could"

"She retained her composure"

"this garment retains its shape even after many washings"

11. sustain, keep, maintain

supply with necessities and support

"She alone sustained her family"

"The money will sustain our good cause"

"There's little to earn and many to keep"

12. keep, stay fresh

fail to spoil or rot

"These potatoes keep for a long time"

13. observe, celebrate, keep

behave as expected during of holidays or rites

"Keep the commandments"

"celebrate Christmas"

"Observe Yom Kippur"

14. keep, preserve

maintain in safety from injury, harm, or danger

"May God keep you"

15. keep

raise

"She keeps a few chickens in the yard"

"he keeps bees"

16. keep open, hold open, keep, save

retain rights to

"keep my job for me while I give birth"

"keep my seat, please"

"keep open the possibility of a merger"

17. keep

store or keep customarily

"Where do you keep your gardening tools?"

18. keep

have as a supply

"I always keep batteries in the freezer"

"keep food for a week in the pantry"

"She keeps a sixpack and a week's worth of supplies in the refrigerator"

19. keep, maintain

maintain for use and service

"I keep a car in the countryside"

"She keeps an apartment in Paris for her shopping trips"

20. keep

hold and prevent from leaving

"The student was kept after school"

21. restrain, keep, keep back, hold back

prevent the action or expression of

"hold back your anger"

"keep your cool"

"she struggled to restrain her impatience at the delays"

22. preserve, keep

prevent (food) from rotting

"preserved meats"

"keep potatoes fresh"

"kept" in the adjective sense

1. unbroken, kept

especially of promises or contracts) not violated or disregarded

"unbroken promises"

"promises kept"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


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Quotations for kept

Friendship's as it's kept. [ Gaelic Proverb ]

All my past life is mine no more,
The flying hours are gone
Like transitory dreams given over,
Whose images are kept in store,
By memory alone. [ Rochester ]

The holiest of holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart,
The secret anniversaries of the heart. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]

The prince, who kept the world in awe.
The judge, whose dictate fix'd the law.
The rich, the poor, the great, the small,
Are levelled: death confounds them all. [ Gay ]

Bad customs are better broke than kept up. [ Proverb ]

Fire that's closest kept burns most of all. [ William Shakespeare ]

Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink;
So may he cease to write, and learn to think. [ Prior ]

Heresy may be easier kept out than shook off. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Character must be kept bright as well as clean. [ Chesterfield ]

A servant and a cock should be kept but a year. [ Proverb ]

Here lies Dame Dorothy Peg,
Who never had issue except in her leg,
So great was her art, so deep was her cunning,
That while one leg stood, the other kept running. [ Epitaph ]

An oath that is not to be made is not to be kept. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Even a Venice-glass, if well kept, will last long. [ Proverb ]

How long the night seems to one kept awake by pain. [ Saurin ]

Resolutions are well kept when they jump with inclination. [ Goldsmith ]

Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt. [ Dr. John ]

Riches are got with pain, kept with care, and lost with grief. [ Proverb ]

A dishonest woman cannot be kept in, and an honest one will not. [ Proverb ]

He had kept the whiteness of his soul, and thus men over him wept. [ Byron ]

Riches are got wi' pain, kept wi' care, and tint (lost) wi' grief. [ Scotch Proverb ]

How sour sweet music is, when time is broke, and no proportion kept! [ William Shakespeare ]

Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin. [ Erasmus ]

You have lost your money; perhaps, if you had kept it, it would have lost you.

Such dupes are men to custom, and so prone
To reverence what is ancient, and can plead
A course of long observance for its use.
That even servitude, the worst of ills,
Because delivered down from sire to son, Is kept and guarded as a sacred thing! [ Cowper ]

Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least. [ Horace ]

Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law. [ Milton ]

Truth will be uppermost one time or another like cork, though kept down in the water. [ Sir W. Temple ]

It is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved. [ Thomas Fuller ]

Unless the people can be kept in total darkness, it is the wisest way for the advocates of truth to give them full light. [ Whately ]

Wine leads to folly, making even the wise to laugh immoderately, to dance, and to utter what had better have been kept silent. [ Homer ]

A thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept their pale, unbodied shade, to warn us from fleshless hps. [ Bulwer ]

Two pots stood by a river, one of brass, the other of clay; the water carried them away; the earthen vessel kept aloof from the other. [ L'Estrange ]

Riches are gotten with pain, kept with care, and lost with grief. The cares of riches lie heavier upon a good man than the inconveniences of an honest poverty. [ L'Estrange ]

The past but lives in words; a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale, unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

Adam knew no disease so long as temperance from the forbidden fruit secured him. Nature was his physician; and innocence and abstinence would have kept him healthful to immortality. [ South ]

Proverbs are somewhat analogous to those medical formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready made up in the chemists' shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct prescription. [ Whately ]

A thousand wheels of labor are turned by dear affections, and kept in motion by self-sacrificing endurance; and the crowds that pour forth in the morning and return at night are daily processiona of love and duty. [ Chapin ]

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated; by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed. [ Addison ]

Flowers belong to Fairyland: the flowers and the birds and the butterflies are all that the world has kept of its golden age - the only perfectly beautiful things on earth - joyous, innocent, half divine - useless, say they who are wiser than God. [ Ouida ]

Be cheerful, and seek not external help, nor the tranquillity which others give. A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it. [ Marcus Aurelius ]

Those who have arrived at any very eminent degree of excellence in the practice of an art or profession have commonly been actuated by a species of enthusiasm in their pursuit of it. They have kept one object in view amidst all the vicissitudes of time and fortune. [ John Knox ]

Art employs method for the symmetrical formation of beauty, as science employs it for the logical exposition of truth; but the mechanical process is, in the last, ever kept visibly distinct, while in the first it escapes from sight amid the shows of color and the curves of grace. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

There is the same difference between diligence and neglect, that there is between a garden curiously kept and the sluggard's field when it was all overgrown with nettles and thorns; the one is clothed with beauty and the gracious amiableness of content and cheering loveliness; while the other hath nothing but either little smarting pungencies or else such transpiercings as rankle the flesh within. [ Feltham ]

Once when I was in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, I met a mysterious old stranger. He said he was about to die and wanted to tell someone about the treasure. I said, Okay, as long as it's not a long story. Some of us have a plane to catch, you know. He started telling his story, about the treasure and his life and all, and I thought: This story isn't too long. But then, he kept going, and I started thinking, Uh-oh, this story is getting long. But then the story was over, and I said to myself: You know, that story wasn't too long after all. I forget what the story was about, but there was a good movie on the plane. It was a little long, though. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

kept in Scrabble®

The word kept is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 10

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Play In The Letters kept:

KEPT
(45)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word kept

KEPT
(45)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(18)
KEPT
(16)
KEPT
(15)
KEPT
(13)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(11)
KEPT
(11)
KEPT
(10)

The 60 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In kept

KEPT
(45)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEPT
(30)
KEP
(27)
KEP
(27)
KEP
(27)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(20)
KEP
(19)
KEP
(18)
KEPT
(18)
KEP
(18)
KEP
(18)
KEP
(17)
KEPT
(16)
PET
(15)
PET
(15)
KEPT
(15)
PET
(15)
KEP
(15)
KEP
(14)
KEPT
(13)
PE
(12)
PE
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEP
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(11)
KEP
(11)
PET
(11)
KEPT
(11)
PET
(10)
PET
(10)
KEP
(10)
PET
(10)
PE
(10)
KEPT
(10)
PET
(9)
KEP
(9)
PE
(8)
PE
(8)
PET
(8)
PET
(7)
PE
(7)
PET
(7)
PET
(6)
PET
(6)
PE
(6)
PET
(5)
PE
(5)
PE
(4)

kept in Words With Friends™

The word kept is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 11

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters kept:

KEPT
(63)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word kept

KEPT
(63)
KEPT
(39)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(32)
KEPT
(29)
KEPT
(24)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(21)
KEPT
(20)
KEPT
(19)
KEPT
(17)
KEPT
(16)
KEPT
(15)
KEPT
(15)
KEPT
(13)
KEPT
(13)
KEPT
(13)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(11)

The 65 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In kept

KEPT
(63)
KEPT
(39)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(33)
KEPT
(32)
KEP
(30)
KEP
(30)
KEP
(30)
KEPT
(29)
KEP
(28)
KEPT
(24)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(22)
KEPT
(21)
KEPT
(20)
KEP
(20)
KEP
(20)
KEP
(20)
KEP
(20)
KEPT
(19)
KEP
(19)
PET
(18)
PET
(18)
PET
(18)
KEP
(18)
KEPT
(17)
KEPT
(16)
PET
(16)
KEPT
(15)
PE
(15)
KEPT
(15)
PE
(15)
KEP
(15)
KEP
(14)
PET
(14)
KEPT
(13)
KEPT
(13)
PE
(13)
KEPT
(13)
PET
(12)
KEP
(12)
PET
(12)
PET
(12)
KEPT
(12)
KEPT
(12)
PET
(11)
KEPT
(11)
KEP
(11)
PET
(10)
KEP
(10)
PE
(10)
PE
(10)
PE
(9)
PET
(8)
PET
(8)
PET
(7)
PET
(7)
PE
(7)
PET
(6)
PE
(6)
PE
(5)

Words within the letters of kept

2 letter words in kept (1 word)

3 letter words in kept (2 words)

4 letter words in kept (1 word)

kept + 2 blanks (5 words)

Word Growth involving kept

Shorter words in kept

kep

Longer words containing kept

barkept

bookkept

housekept

outkept

overkept

scorekept

skeptic nonskeptic nonskeptical nonskeptically

skeptic skeptical nonskeptical nonskeptically

skeptic skeptical skeptically nonskeptically

skeptic skeptical skepticalness

skeptic skepticise skepticised

skeptic skepticise skepticises

skeptic skepticising

skeptic skepticism skepticisms

skeptic skepticize skepticized

skeptic skepticize skepticizes

skeptic skepticizing

skeptic skeptics

timekept

underkept

unkept

wellkept

wicketkept