Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping back

keeping back is the present participle and gerund of keep back.

Meaning of keep back

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To hold back; to refuse to give or share.
  2. (intransitive) To stay back; to refrain from approaching.
  3. (transitive) To restrict or restrain.
    • Germany eased off in the second half and this was a night when Joachim Löw, like Southgate, took the opportunity to keep back his best XI.2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian (London)
  4. (transitive) To prevent (a pupil) from advancing in a course.

Questions about keeping back

What is keeping back the present participle and gerund of?
Keeping back is the present participle and gerund of keep back.

Words near keeping back in the dictionary

  1. keeping an eye skinned
  2. keeping around
  3. keeping at
  4. keeping away
  5. keeping away from
  6. keeping back
  7. keeping body and soul together
  8. keeping cave
  9. keeping company
  10. keeping counsel
  11. keeping count

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping back (page history and authors); keep back (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: “keeping back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keeping_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.