Word.ws English Dictionary

keep a lid on

keep a lid on verb: to keep something secret.

Verb

keep a lid on (third-person singular simple present keeps a lid on, present participle keeping a lid on, simple past and past participle kept a lid on)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) To keep something secret.
    • It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?
    • If he was listening to the England fans who gathered and sang non-stop late into the Moscow night behind the goal in the Spartak Stadium, it may have dawned on him that keeping a lid on expectations is likely to be a losing battle.2018 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Colombia 1 - 1 England”, in BBC Sport

Forms of keep a lid on

third-person singular presentkeeps a lid on
present participlekeeping a lid on
past participlekept a lid on
pastkept a lid on

Questions about keep a lid on

What does keep a lid on mean?
Keep a lid on means to keep something secret.
What part of speech is keep a lid on?
Keep a lid on is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep a lid on?
The past tense of keep a lid on is kept a lid on.

Words near keep a lid on in the dictionary

  1. keep a civil tongue in one's head
  2. keep a civil tongue in one's mouth
  3. keep a close watch
  4. keep a cool head
  5. keep a dog and bark oneself
  6. keep a lid on
  7. keep a look-out
  8. keep a lookout
  9. keep a low profile
  10. keep a tight rein on
  11. keep a watch out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep a lid on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-keep a lid on.ogg.

Cite this entry: “keep a lid on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_a_lid_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.