keep the peace

Idioms  

1. Maintain public order; prevent strife. For example, President Clinton ordered troops to Bosnia to keep the peace. This expression dates from the 1400s and was originally used more in the first sense, that is, of police keeping public order. It gained extra currency in the second half of the 1900s when military forces were sent to diverse places—Lebanon, Haiti, Bosnia—to stop warring factions.

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Example Sentences

I would’ve done anything to keep the peace, done anything to get him to forgive me and give him reason to keep loving me.

From Literature

But it is hard to keep the peace.

From BBC

But she hid the regulation baseball, to keep the peace.

From Literature

In 1958, when the star Maria Callas stopped partway through performing “Norma” in Rome and refused to finish the show, it was front-page news; the police were called in to keep the peace.

From The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. is banking on Rodriguez to keep the peace.

From The Wall Street Journal