keep on
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]keep on (third-person singular simple present keeps on, present participle keeping on, simple past and past participle kept on)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To persist or continue.
- 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
- The young woman kept on down Front Street, Warwick maintaining his distance a few rods behind her.
- (intransitive, idiomatic) To persist in talking about a subject, perhaps to the annoyance of the listener.
- For goodness sake, will you stop keeping on about it!
- 2026 April 1, Richard Wilcock, “South Yorkshire's sights on a People's Network”, in RAIL, number 1058, page 23:
- Coppard was unequivocal when speaking to RAIL about this: "I'll keep on telling the government that MML electrification is really important to us. I raised it with Heidi Alexander [Transport Secretary] last Thursday when she was here."
- (transitive, idiomatic) To cause or allow to remain in an existing position.
- The new boss would like to keep the present secretary on.
- 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 361:
- The charge against Zagallo then is not so much that he started Ronaldo, but that when it should surely have been clear that the player was in no fit state to take part he kept him on.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]persist or continue
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remain in position