Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping one's nerve

keeping one's nerve is the present participle and gerund of keep one's nerve.

Meaning of keep one's nerve

Verb

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

  1. To keep one's cool
    • There in crisp fifty-pound notes was the answer to so many of his and his father’s problems. When he thought no one was looking, Frank moved his left foot slowly forward to cover it. If he kept his nerve, he could craftily slide it out of the room.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

Questions about keeping one's nerve

What is keeping one's nerve the present participle and gerund of?
Keeping one's nerve is the present participle and gerund of keep one's nerve.

Words near keeping one's nerve in the dictionary

  1. keeping one's head on one's shoulders
  2. keeping one's head upon one's shoulders
  3. keeping one's knickers on
  4. keeping one's lips sealed
  5. keeping one's mouth shut
  6. keeping one's nerve
  7. keeping one's nose clean
  8. keeping one's options open
  9. keeping one's own counsel
  10. keeping one's pants on
  11. keeping one's pecker up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping one's nerve (page history and authors); keep one's nerve (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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