KEEP BACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does keep back mean? 

• KEEP BACK (verb)
  The verb KEEP BACK has 3 senses:

1. secure and keep for possible future use or application

2. hold back; refuse to hand over or share

3. prevent the action or expression of

  Familiarity information: KEEP BACK used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KEEP BACK (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Secure and keep for possible future use or application

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

hold; hold back; keep back; retain

Context example:

I reserve the right to disagree

Hypernyms (to "keep back" is one way to...):

hold on; keep (retain possession of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "keep back"):

hold down (keep)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They keep back the money

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hold back; refuse to hand over or share

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

keep back; withhold

Context example:

The father is withholding the allowance until the son cleans his room

Hypernyms (to "keep back" is one way to...):

deny; refuse (refuse to let have)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "keep back"):

block; freeze; immobilise; immobilize (prohibit the conversion or use of (assets))

keep to oneself (withhold information)

deny (refuse to grant, as of a petition or request)

reserve (hold back or set aside, especially for future use or contingency)

immobilise; immobilize (hold as reserve or withdraw from circulation; of capital)

deprive (keep from having, keeping, or obtaining)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something from somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Prevent the action or expression of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

hold back; keep; keep back; restrain

Context example:

she struggled to restrain her impatience at the delays

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "keep back"):

hold (keep from exhaling or expelling)

blink; blink away; wink (keep back by blinking)

harness; rein; rule (keep in check)

baffle; regulate (restrain the emission of (sound, fluid, etc.))

swallow (keep from expressing)

confine (prevent from leaving or from being removed)

check; contain; control; curb; hold; hold in; moderate (lessen the intensity of; temper; hold in restraint; hold or keep within limits)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

Martin shook his head, but he had failed to keep back the wolfish, hungry look that leapt into his eyes at the suggestion of dinner.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I brushed away the tears that my utmost resolution had not been able to keep back, and I made a clumsy laugh of it, and we sat down together, side by side.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For myself, I felt so much self-reproach and contrition for my part in what had happened, that nothing would have enabled me to keep back my tears but the fear that Steerforth, who often looked at me, I saw, might think it unfriendly—or, I should rather say, considering our relative ages, and the feeling with which I regarded him, undutiful—if I showed the emotion which distressed me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)