Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping someone guessing

keeping someone guessing is the present participle and gerund of keep someone guessing.

Meaning of keep someone guessing

Verb

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

  1. To act in such a way that others do not fully understand what one has done or do not know what to expect next.
    • She could not even dimly understand Helen's merry protestation that it was fun to make people wonder and keep them guessing.1924, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, “Chapter 7”, in The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson

Questions about keeping someone guessing

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

Words near keeping someone guessing in the dictionary

  1. keeping schtum
  2. keeping score
  3. keeping shtum
  4. keeping sight of
  5. keeping someone company
  6. keeping someone guessing
  7. keeping someone honest
  8. keeping someone in the loop
  9. keeping someone on ice
  10. keeping someone on their toes
  11. keeping someone posted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping someone guessing (page history and authors); keep someone guessing (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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