keeper

[ kee-per ]
See synonyms for: keeperkeepers on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a person who guards or watches, as at a prison or gate.

  2. a person who assumes responsibility for another's behavior: He refused to be his brother's keeper.

  1. a person who owns or operates a business (usually used in combination): a hotelkeeper.

  2. a person who is responsible for the maintenance of something (often used in combination): a zookeeper; a groundskeeper.

  3. a person charged with responsibility for the preservation and conservation of something valuable, as a curator or game warden.

  4. a person who conforms to or abides by a requirement: a keeper of his word.

  5. a fish that is of sufficient size to be caught and retained without violating the law.

  6. Football. a play in which the quarterback retains the ball and runs with it, usually after faking a hand-off or pass.

  7. something that serves to hold in place, retain, etc., as on a door lock.

  8. something that lasts well, as a fruit.

  9. an iron or steel bar placed across the poles of a permanent horseshoe magnet for preserving the strength of the magnet during storage.

Origin of keeper

1
First recorded in 1250–1300, keeper is from the Middle English word keper.See keep, -er1

Other words for keeper

Other words from keeper

  • keep·er·less, adjective
  • keep·er·ship, noun
  • un·der·keep·er, noun

Words Nearby keeper

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use keeper in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for keeper

keeper

/ (ˈkiːpə) /


noun
  1. a person in charge of animals, esp in a zoo

  2. a person in charge of a museum, collection, or section of a museum

  1. a person in charge of other people, such as a warder in a jail

  2. a person who keeps something

  3. a device, such as a clip, for keeping something in place

  4. a soft iron or steel bar placed across the poles of a permanent magnet to close the magnetic circuit when it is not in use

Derived forms of keeper

  • keeperless, adjective
  • keepership, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012