To keep a pig, verb. phr. (Oxford University).—To have a lodger. [The pig (q.v.) is usually a freshman who, the college being full, is quartered on a student whose rooms include two bedchambers.]
To keep a stiff upper lip (or one's pecker up), verb. phr. (general).—To stand firm; to keep up a heart; to chuck out one's chest.
To keep the doctor, verb. phr. (common).—To retail adulterated drinks: Cf. Doctor.
To keep chapel, verb. phr. (University).—See quot. 1852.
1850. Household Words, ii. p. 161. 'As you have failed to make up your number of chapels the last two weeks,' such were the very words of the Dean, 'you will, if you please, keep every chapel till the end of the term.'
1852. Bristed, Five Years etc., 32. The undergraduate is expected to go to Chapel eight times, or, in academic parlance, to keep eight chapels a week.
To keep cave, verb. phr. (Eton College).—To watch and give warning on a tutor's approach.
1883. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton, ch. iv. Another had to mount guard in the passage, or on the staircase, to keep cave.
To keep down the census, verb. phr. (common.)—To procure abortion; to masturbate. Fr. taper un môme.
To keep dark (or it dark), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To keep secret.
1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, vii. I always thought it was a pity she kept it so dark.
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 120. I'll keep dark.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xii. It'll give us all we know to keep dark when this thing gets into the papers.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, p. 33. 'Never mind, Moll, I'll keep the next time dark, you bet.'
To keep sloom, verb. phr. (tailors').—To keep quiet.
To keep it up, verb. phr. (common).—To continue anything vigorously; specifically to prolong a debauch.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii. 1. 'He mistook you for the barmaid, Madam!' 'Did he? Then, as I live, I am resolved to keep up the delusion?'
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, i. 1. Their regular hours stupefy me—not a fiddle nor a card after eleven! However Mr. Faulkland's gentleman and I keep it up a little in private parties.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, ii. 52. Yet they were keeping it up, as they called it; singing, though they wanted spirits.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. We kept it up finely last night: metaphor drawn from the game of shuttlecock.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick [ed. 1857] p. 443. We were keeping it up pretty tolerably at the stump last night.
1857-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii. 57. We keeps it up for half an hour, or an hour . . . if the browns tumble in well.
1879. Athenæum, July 5, p. 13, col. 2. He puts some excellent remarks on the question of keeping it up into a conversation among some of his Roman artists.
To keep dry, verb. phr. (American).—To hold one's tongue; to keep dark (q.v.).
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin, p. 295. Never let them get a chance at your sentiment; keep that dry.
To keep one back and belly, verb. phr. (common).—To feed and clothe.
For keeps, phr. (schoolboys').—To keep for good.
