keep time
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English time kepen, kepen time, etc.
Verb[edit]
keep time (third-person singular simple present keeps time, present participle keeping time, simple past and past participle kept time)
- To measure time.
- To indicate the time correctly (of a timepiece).
- Antonym: lose time
- How well does this old watch keep time?
- To make any regular rhythmical movements at the same time with others.
- He couldn't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow, but he keeps time like a damn machine.
- To control the beat or rhythm of a song played by a music group.
- Isn't one of the conductor's main jobs to keep time?
- To maintain a schedule set out in a timetable. (e.g. of a train)
- Antonym: lose time
- 1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220:
- We never had a chance even to attempt to keep time. An empty stock train from Stewarts Lane was given the road just ahead of us, and from Grosvenor Bridge to Herne Hill we had the signals against us all the way.