keep one's word

Idioms  

1. Honor one's promises, as in You can count on Richard; he'll keep his word. This expression employs word in the sense of “a promise,” a usage dating from the late 1500s. For an antonym, see go back on.

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Example Sentences

Still, she had promised, and one should keep one’s word unless the keeping becomes impossible.

From The Late Tenant by Tracy, Louis

I had to give him what I had promised him, one must always keep one's word.

From The Imaginary Marriage by Cooper, Henry St. John

"Of course, it's unfortunate; but the first thing is to keep one's word."

From The Hero by Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)

"Moreover," he added, "I have read that one must always keep one's word to a child."

From Opening a Chestnut Burr by Roe, Edward Payson

Not to keep one's word, to play a hopeless part in the dark, to leap when the numma wapew is over the eyes and you are blind—that takes a man.

From God's Country—And the Woman by Curwood, James Oliver