Word.ws English Dictionary

keep measures

keep measures verb: to show restraint; to behave with moderation.

Verb

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

  1. (obsolete) To show restraint; to behave with moderation.
    • He keeps no measure in his contempt for him.1863, Charles Cowden Clarke, Shakespeare-characters
  2. (obsolete) To act in due consideration with (a person, opinion etc.).
    • Upon my return to Bath, I was again harrassed by lord —, who came thither accompanied by my father, whom I was very glad to see, though he importuned me to comply with my husband's desire, and for the future keep measures with the world.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

Forms of keep measures

third-person singular presentkeeps measures
present participlekeeping measures
past participlekept measures
pastkept measures
alternative formkeep measure
alternative formobserve measures

Questions about keep measures

What does keep measures mean?
Keep measures means to show restraint; to behave with moderation.
What part of speech is keep measures?
Keep measures is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep measures?
The past tense of keep measures is kept measures.

Words near keep measures in the dictionary

  1. keep it tall
  2. keep it together
  3. keep it trill
  4. keep it up
  5. keep kosher
  6. keep measures
  7. keep off
  8. keep off the street
  9. keep off the streets
  10. keep on
  11. keep on about

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep measures (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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