Word.ws English Dictionary

keep counsel

keep counsel verb: to keep one's counsel.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To keep one's counsel.
    • A lady, sir, as you will find, / Keeps counsel, or she speaks her mind, / Means what she says and scorns to fence / And palter with feigned innocence.1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers

Forms of keep counsel

third-person singular presentkeeps counsel
present participlekeeping counsel
past participlekept counsel
pastkept counsel

Questions about keep counsel

What does keep counsel mean?
Keep counsel means to keep one's counsel.
What part of speech is keep counsel?
Keep counsel is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep counsel?
The past tense of keep counsel is kept counsel.

Words near keep counsel in the dictionary

  1. keep away from
  2. keep back
  3. keep body and soul together
  4. keep cave
  5. keep company
  6. keep counsel
  7. keep count
  8. keep cup
  9. keep cups
  10. keep down
  11. keep faith

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep counsel (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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