Word.ws English Dictionary

keep one's peace

keep one's peace is the alternative form of hold one's peace.

Meaning of hold one's peace

Verb

hold one's peace (third-person singular simple present holds one's peace, present participle holding one's peace, simple past and past participle held one's peace)

  1. (idiomatic) To refrain from speaking; to be silent.
    • Thurio: How likes she my discourse?
      Proteus: Ill, when you talk of war.
      Thurio: But well, when I discourse of love and peace?
      Julia: [Aside] But better, indeed, when you hold your peace.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Forms of keep one's peace

third-person singular presentkeeps one's peace
present participlekeeping one's peace
past participlekept one's peace
pastkept one's peace

Questions about keep one's peace

What is keep one's peace the alternative form of?
Keep one's peace is the alternative form of hold one's peace.

Words near keep one's peace in the dictionary

  1. keep one's nerve
  2. keep one's nose clean
  3. keep one's options open
  4. keep one's own counsel
  5. keep one's pants on
  6. keep one's peace
  7. keep one's pecker up
  8. keep one's powder dry
  9. keep one's shirt on
  10. keep one's side of the bargain
  11. keep one's stick on the ice

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's peace (page history and authors); hold one's peace (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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Cite this entry: “keep one's peace.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_one%27s_peace. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.