keep to oneself
Idioms-
Also, keep oneself to oneself . Shun the company of others, value one's privacy, as in She kept to herself all morning , or, as Doris Lessing put it in In Pursuit of the English (1960): “She keeps herself to herself so much.” [Late 1600s]
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Refrain from revealing, hold secret, as in He promised to keep the news to himself . Also see the synonym keep under one's hat .
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.
Or perhaps they had just learned a lesson that Mr. Tale-Yax so clearly had not: better to keep to oneself than to risk the trouble that comes from extending a helping hand.
From New York Times • Apr. 26, 2010
One could buy expensive digital books which one was allowed to share, quote, or copy for classroom use, and cheaper ones which one had to keep to oneself.
From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by Boyle, James
In such surroundings one can most easily keep to oneself, for every walk presents objects of an important kind, and satisfies the want of men and things.
From Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2 by Hueffer, Francis
One should not be an artist save when one absolutely cannot keep to oneself the feeling one has—only when one has too much feeling.
From Pierre and Luce by Rolland, Romain
Does it put one outside the local pale to keep to oneself any painful incident in one's own career?
From The Shadow of the Rope by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
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.
