keep on
Britishverb
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to continue or persist in (doing something)
keep on running
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(tr) to continue to wear
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(tr) to continue to employ
the firm kept on only ten men
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to persist in talking (about)
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to nag (a person)
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Continue, persist, as in They kept on singing all night . [Late 1500s]
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Maintain an existing situation, as in After Mr. Brown died, the housekeeper wondered if she would be kept on . [Mid-1600s]
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Cause to stay on or remain attached, as in Keep your coat on; it's cold in here . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They said this could represent a “crunch point” ahead of the winter heating season; however, as that’s a few months away, there are still enough supplies for economies to keep on functioning relatively normally.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
“People didn’t expect to receive a response, but hearing about how the book moved them was a motivation for me to keep on working.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The statistics just keep on getting more impressive.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
For now, however, less debt and more investments have allowed plenty of Americans to keep on spending.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
“But I don’t know what else we can do, except keep on deceiving ourselves. And perhaps by that time we’ll be home.”
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
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.
