keep back


verb(adverb often foll by from)
  1. (tr) to refuse to reveal or disclose

  2. to prevent, be prevented, or refrain from advancing, entering, etc

Words Nearby keep back

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

How to use keep back in a sentence

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

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • He sat and held her hands, and saw her bite her lips and fight to keep back the tears in her eyes.

    Love's Pilgrimage | Upton Sinclair
  • If it were the last words she had to speak, she said afterwards, he was striving to keep back a fit of laughing.

    A Thin Ghost and Others | M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James
  • 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.

    The Creators | May Sinclair

Other Idioms and Phrases with keep back

keep back

see hold back.

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