keep the flag flying
keep the flag flying verb: to bid more or less rashly in order to liven up the game.
Verb
keep the flag flying (third-person singular simple present keeps the flag flying, present participle keeping the flag flying, simple past and past participle kept the flag flying)
- To bid more or less rashly in order to liven up the game.
- In spite of Y's double and in spite of the fact that the spade suit is not of the slightest use to him, as A cannot get any discards on it, A bids two hearts not only to keep the flag flying and prevent Z from going game but with high hopes that Y's double is a bluff.1911, Advanced Auction Bridge, page 158
- […] all I know is that to keep the flag flying is an accepted part of bridge, […]1929, The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume 147, page 96
Forms of keep the flag flying
| third-person singular present | keeps the flag flying |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping the flag flying |
| past participle | kept the flag flying |
| past | kept the flag flying |
Questions about keep the flag flying
- What does keep the flag flying mean?
- Keep the flag flying means to bid more or less rashly in order to liven up the game.
- What part of speech is keep the flag flying?
- Keep the flag flying is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep the flag flying?
- The past tense of keep the flag flying is kept the flag flying.
Words near keep the flag flying in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep the flag flying (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 the flag flying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_the_flag_flying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.