keep company
Idioms-
Also, keep company with . Associate with; also, carry on a courtship. For example, He keeps company with a wild bunch , or Jack and Françoise kept company for two years before they married . [Mid-1500s]
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keep someone company . Accompany or remain with someone, as in Mary kept Mother company while she shopped , or Do you want me to stay and keep you company? This term was originally put as bear someone company . [c. 1300]
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.
All the while they keep company online with that faint, terrified voice.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025
“It is a tradition that we keep company with our young ones. It is our belief that we should be with them so they are not lonely.”
From Seattle Times • Oct. 7, 2022
What sets him apart, according to those he has worked with, is the "intensity" with which he drives change, and his ability to keep company executives on their toes with thorough research.
From Reuters • Jun. 1, 2022
The library, for instance, has likenesses of Marcus Aurelius, Alexander the Great and Sappho, while such Renaissance men as Galileo and Leon Battista Alberti keep company on the terrace.
From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2022
“We have time. What makes a good little merch boy leave home to keep company with criminals?”
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
