Word.ws English Dictionary

keep it between the ditches

keep it between the ditches verb: to stay out of trouble or follow a righteous (God-fearing) path.

Verb

keep it between the ditches (third-person singular simple present keeps it between the ditches, present participle keeping it between the ditches, simple past and past participle kept it between the ditches)

  1. (idiomatic) To stay out of trouble or follow a righteous (God-fearing) path.

Forms of keep it between the ditches

third-person singular presentkeeps it between the ditches
present participlekeeping it between the ditches
past participlekept it between the ditches
pastkept it between the ditches

Origin of keep it between the ditches

Originally an Irish saying referring to keeping your horse (and buggy) on the road when either the terrain or your spirit or speed was challenging, it was brought to America by immigrant settlers and made popular in the Southern states. It was also popularised by the fictional "Duke Brothers " in the TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard" based in rural Georgia. In recent years the phase has morphed into the meaning of "Clean Living", The rock band Drive By Truckers used the phrase in their song "The Righteous Path." Some members of the band are from the northern part of Alabama.

Questions about keep it between the ditches

What does keep it between the ditches mean?
Keep it between the ditches means to stay out of trouble or follow a righteous (God-fearing) path.
What part of speech is keep it between the ditches?
Keep it between the ditches is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep it between the ditches?
The past tense of keep it between the ditches is kept it between the ditches.

Words near keep it between the ditches in the dictionary

  1. keep it 100
  2. keep it a bean
  3. keep it a buck
  4. keep it a buck fifty
  5. keep it a stack
  6. keep it between the ditches
  7. keep it in one's pants
  8. keep it in the family
  9. keep it moving
  10. keep it one hundred
  11. keep it P

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep it between the ditches (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 it between the ditches.ogg.

Cite this entry: “keep it between the ditches.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_it_between_the_ditches. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.