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power or possession; not to lose; to retain; to detain. If we lose the field, We can not keep the town. Shak. That I may know what keeps me here with you. Dryden. If we would weigh and keep in our minds what we are considering, that would instruct us. Locke.

One who, or that which, keeps; one who, or that which, holds or has possession of anything.

The office or position of a keeper. Carew.

lding; restraint; custody; guard; charge; care; preservation. His happiness is in his own keeping. South.

Anything kept, or given to be kept, for the sake of the giver; a token of friendship.

One who keeps or tends a bar for the sale of liquors.

One who keeps accounts; one who has the charge of keeping the books and accounts in an office.

eir relation to each other, and the state of the business in which they occur; the art of keeping accounts. The books commonly used are a daybook, cashbook, journal, and ledger. See Daybook, Cashbook, Journal, and Ledger. Bookkeeping by single entry, the method of keeping books by carrying the record of each transactio…

An attendant at a theater who has charge of the boxes.

son employed to scare off crows; hence, a scarecrow. [Obs.] Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper. Shak.

One who guards the entrance of a house or apartment; a porter; a janitor.

One who has the care of game, especially in a park or preserve. Blackstone.

Staying at home; not gadding. Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. Shak.

One who does, or oversees, the work of keeping house; as, his wife is a good housekeeper; often, a woman hired to superintend the servants of a household and manage the ordinary domestic affairs.

supply of provisions. [Obs.] Tell me, softly and hastly, what's in the pantry Small housekeeping enough, said Phoebe. Sir W. Scott.

An innholder.

To keep wrongly. Chaucer.

An attachment to a surveyor's compass for keeping tally in chaining.

The keeper of a pound.

The act of keeping or preserving in safety from injury or from escape; care; custody.