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keeper

[kee-per]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR keeper ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

something that lasts well, as a fruit.

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

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

Related formskeep·er·less, adjectivekeep·er·ship, nounun·der·keep·er, noun

Synonyms for keeper

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR keeper ON THESAURUS.COM

1. warden, jailer. 2. custodian, guardian.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for keeper

defender, attendant, caretaker, curator, custodian, lookout, sentry, superintendent, jailer, archivist, steward, guard, warden, conservator, sentinel, supervisor, protector, overseer

Examples from the Web for keeper

Contemporary Examples of keeper

Now, the goalkeeper is out with a memoir about his life until that point: The Keeper: A Life of Saving Goals and Achieving Them.
Tim Howard’s Wall of Intensity
William O’Connor
December 22, 2014
“The state has been trying to lay its hands on them for years,” one keeper of a 700 book-strong library told the paper.
The Lost Libraries of the Sahara‬
Nina Strochlic
September 11, 2014
In a lot of ways, that's what My Brother's Keeper is all about, and why it's so important.
Billie Holiday, Barack Obama, and the Pain of Black Women
Joshua DuBois
June 22, 2014
Some black women, in the face of My Brother's Keeper, felt left out.
Billie Holiday, Barack Obama, and the Pain of Black Women
Joshua DuBois
June 22, 2014
The International Olympic Committee is the keeper of the Olympic flame, and has immense power over national Olympic committees.
Why Won’t IOC Push Saudi Arabia on Women for Olympic Games?
Nikki Dryden
February 20, 2012

Historical Examples of keeper

I know very well that I'm my brother's keeper, but I can't tell where he is.'
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
Woe to him who is not the keeper of his own conscience—the supporter of his own resolution!
Tales And Novels, Volume 5 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth
The keeper of the rendezvous received us gladly, and we shipped immediately.
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
But my brother is quite too often a keeper of mine—of mine own choice authors.
Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870
Various
Just inside the gate he found the little room where the keeper had stayed.
Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, Mycenae
Jennie Hall

British Dictionary definitions for keeper

keeper

noun

a person in charge of animals, esp in a zoo

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

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

See goalkeeper, wicketkeeper, gamekeeper

a person who keeps something

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

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 Formskeeperless, adjectivekeepership, 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

Word Origin and History for keeper

n.

c.1300 (late 13c. as a surname), "one who has charge of some person or thing, warden," agent noun from keep (v.). Sense of "one who carries on some business" is from mid-15c. Sporting sense (originally cricket) is from 1744. Meaning "something (or someone) worth keeping" is attested by 1999. Brother's keeper is from Genesis iv:9.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper