keeping one's counsel

Verb

keep one's counsel (third-person singular simple present keeps one's counsel, present participle keeping one's counsel, simple past and past participle kept one's counsel)

1. To keep one's own business private; to be careful, circumspect, or discreet in what one says concerning one's own deeds, situation, or thoughts.
   • As he held his mother to him, he longed to tell her all, but he kept his counsel.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Contains both Love and War”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 56

   Synonyms:

   hold one's peace, keep one's cards close to one's chest, keep one's mouth shut, keep one's own counsel, keep counsel

2. To keep a secret for someone else; to be careful, circumspect, or discreet in what one says concerning someone else's deeds, situation, or thoughts.
   • Standish will keep our counsel, and the news will be old before it's known.1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XLIX, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book V, page 105

   Synonyms:

   keep one's mouth shut