Chapter Karstenite to Keep of K by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

3. To cause to remain in a given situation or condition; to maintain unchanged; to hold or preserve in any state or tenor.

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.

Milton.

Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on.

Addison.

In this sense it is often used with prepositions and adverbs, as to keep away, to keep down, to keep from, to keep in, out, or off, etc. "To keep off impertinence and solicitation from his superior." Addison.

4. To have in custody; to have in some place for preservation; to take charge of.

The crown of Stephanus, first king of Hungary, was always kept in the castle of Vicegrade.

Knolles.

5. To preserve from danger, harm, or loss; to guard.

Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee.

Gen. xxviii. 15.

6. To preserve from discovery or publicity; not to communicate, reveal, or betray, as a secret.

Great are thy virtues . . . though kept from man.

Milton.

7. To attend upon; to have the care of; to tend.

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.

Gen. ii. 15.

In her girlish age, she kept sheep on the moor.

Carew.

8. To record transactions, accounts, or events in; as, to keep books, a journal, etc.; also, to enter (as accounts, records, etc. ) in a book.

9. To maintain, as an establishment, institution, or the like; to conduct; to manage; as, to keep store.

Like a pedant that keeps a school.

Shak.

Every one of them kept house by himself.

Hayward.

10. To supply with necessaries of life; to entertain; as, to keep boarders.

11. To have in one's service; to have and maintain, as an assistant, a servant, a mistress, a horse, etc.

I keep but three men and a boy.

Shak.

12. To have habitually in stock for sale.

13. To continue in, as a course or mode of action; not to intermit or fall from; to hold to; to maintain; as, to keep silence; to keep one's word; to keep possession.

Both day and night did we keep company.

Shak.

Within this portal as I kept my watch.

Smollett.