Word.ws English Dictionary

kept someone honest

kept someone honest is the simple past and past participle of keep someone honest.

Meaning of keep someone honest

Verb

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

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see keep, honest.
  2. To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory.
    • Jones is down ten games to two, but still keeping his opponent honest.

Questions about kept someone honest

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

Words near kept someone honest in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept someone honest (page history and authors); keep someone honest (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “kept someone honest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kept_someone_honest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.