1724–27. Ramsay, ‘O Mither Dear, I Gin to Fear,’ in Wks. (at sup.),
11. 281. ‘I ’gin to fear, Tho’ I’m baith good and bonny, I wina
keep; for in my sleep I start and dream of Johny.’
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. Keep.... Mother, your tit won’t keep; your
daughter will not preserve her virginity.
3. (colloquial).—To maintain a woman for bedservice. Hence keeper = a
man who salaries a standing mistress; to go into keeping = to take
service as a bed-fellow; to take into keeping = to keep; kept-woman = a
salaried smock-servant; house-keeper [or house-bit] (q.v.);
keeping-cully (q.v.); etc. [See also Brome (The City Wit), Dramatis
Personæ for ‘two keeping women’, where it seems to stand for
lodging-house keeping.]
1579. North, Noble Grecians and Romanes, ‘Fabius Maximus’ (in Tudor
Translations, 1895, ii. 78). My good sister, there was a great
speache in the Romaines campe that thou wert kept by one of the
chiefest captaines of the garrison.
1640. Randolph, Poems etc., in Wks. [Hazlitt, (1875), ii, 539]. I
wonder what should Madam Lesbia mean To keep young Histrio?
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding [Dodsley, Old Plays (1875), xiv.
379]. ‘Will you keep me then?’ ‘keep thee! I’d marry thee as soon’
... ‘no, no keeping, I.’ Ibid. 438. Rather than marry, keep a
wench.
1678. Dryden, All for Love, Prol. The keeping tonies of the pit.
1679. Dryden, Limberham or The Kind Keeper [Title].
1721. Ramsay, Morning Interview (note), in Wks., i. 281. A kind
keeper.
1732. Fielding, Covent Garden Tragedy. And I will let the sooty
rascals see A Christian keeps a whore as well as they.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, i. 2. It was a saying in
the place that he kept the best horses, dogs, and girls in the
whole county.
1895. Times, 19 June, p. 5, col. 6. They allow their daughter,
Alma, to be kept by Herr Mühlink’s son.
To keep one’s eyes skinned (polished, or peeled, or one’s weather eye
lifted, nose open, or end up, etc.) verb. phr. (common).—To take care;
to maintain a position; to be wide-awake, or fly (q.v.).
1847. Porter, Big Bear etc., p. 134. Keep your eye skinned for
sign, and listen for my horn.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 14. ‘Yep, old gal! and keep
your nose open; thar’s brown-skin about.’
1887. Francis, Saddle & Mocassin, 138. If you have business to
attend to, you’d best go right along and do it. Keep your eyes
skinned of course, but don’t stay home.
1888. Froude, The English in the West Indies. Americans keep their
eyes skinned as they call it, to look out for other openings.
1890. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 88. I bade my friend Jack
keep his eye polished.
1891. Herald, 19 July. ‘Old fellow,’ he said, ‘we must go with them
and keep our eyes peeled, for they don’t none of ’em mean to be
square any more’n I do.’
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 21. ‘Do you
think, Loudon,’ he replied, ‘that a man who can paint a
thousand-dollar picture has not grit enough to keep his end up in
the stock market?’
1892. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 19 Mar. p. 94, col. 3. ‘Don’t
forget it’s Leap Year ’Hity; keep your weather eye peeled.’
To keep company, verb. phr. (old).—1. To go into society; to entertain
often and be often entertained.
1658. Brome, Covent Garden Weeded, p. 24. Why, Sir, did not I keep
company, think you, when I was young?