Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for keep back

keep back

verb

  1. tr to refuse to reveal or disclose
  2. to prevent, be prevented, or refrain from advancing, entering, etc
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

see hold back .
Discover More

Example Sentences

Two personalities fought for possession of his soul, and he could not always keep back the lower of the two.

He sat and held her hands, and saw her bite her lips and fight to keep back the tears in her eyes.

If it were the last words she had to speak, she said afterwards, he was striving to keep back a fit of laughing.

On arriving at the inn, the commissary caused the door of the court-yard to be closed, in order to keep back the people.

She turned, and he came forward, and she met him, holding her head high to keep back her tears.

Advertisement

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


keep a weather eye outkeep body and soul together