Word.ws English Dictionary

kept it in the family

kept it in the family is the simple past and past participle of keep it in the family.

Meaning of keep it in the family

Verb

keep it in the family (third-person singular simple present keeps it in the family, present participle keeping it in the family, simple past and past participle kept it in the family)

  1. (idiomatic) To restrict knowledge or information to only the members of a family or another small, intimate group.
    • Near-synonyms: keep one's own counsel, keep one's mouth shut, STFU; see also Thesaurus:be quiet
  2. (idiomatic) To remain loyal to one's family; to retain family ownership of a business for long period of time.

Questions about kept it in the family

What is kept it in the family the simple past and past participle of?
Kept it in the family is the simple past and past participle of keep it in the family.

Words near kept it in the family in the dictionary

  1. kept it a buck
  2. kept it a buck fifty
  3. kept it a stack
  4. kept it between the ditches
  5. kept it in one's pants
  6. kept it in the family
  7. kept it moving
  8. kept it one hundred
  9. kept it together
  10. kept it up
  11. kept man

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept it in the family (page history and authors); keep it in the family (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: “kept it in the family.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kept_it_in_the_family. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.