Word.ws English Dictionary

kept counsel

kept counsel is the simple past and past participle of keep counsel.

Meaning of keep counsel

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To keep one's counsel.
    • A lady, sir, as you will find, / Keeps counsel, or she speaks her mind, / Means what she says and scorns to fence / And palter with feigned innocence.1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers

Questions about kept counsel

What is kept counsel the simple past and past participle of?
Kept counsel is the simple past and past participle of keep counsel.

Words near kept counsel in the dictionary

  1. kept body and soul together
  2. kept boy
  3. kept boys
  4. kept cave
  5. kept company
  6. kept counsel
  7. kept count
  8. kept down
  9. kept faith
  10. kept from
  11. kept going

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept counsel (page history and authors); keep counsel (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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