Talk:keep

Would keep from qualify as a derived term? — This comment was unsigned.

Yes, absolutely. --Connel MacKenzie 06:06, 13 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

There are a few meanings that I'm not sure are already covered:

1. to keep in the sense of "keeping a promise"
2. as in "How are you keeping?", (How are you?) --Hhaayyddnn 11:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
3. I would add "it will keep" as in "it can wait", eg in John Wyndham's Meteor: "I'm not going to have my dinner kept waiting and spoiled. Whatever it is, it will keep." (Also cf eg [1].) --Droigheann (talk) 12:40, 7 December 2014 (UTC)Reply

I think the promise is sense 1: "not to intermit or fall from; to maintain"; we already have "keep one's word" as an example there. Your second one, "how are you keeping?", seems to be part of the third supersense ("to hold or be held in a state"), but it's hard to say which subsense would apply. The third sense (food will keep) is 3.3: "to remain edible or otherwise usable". Equinox ◑ 16:09, 7 December 2014 (UTC)Reply

Um... I should have expanded on the context: it's not the dinner that's supposed to "keep", it's an action that's supposed to "keep" while they are eating the dinner. --Droigheann (talk) 19:53, 13 December 2014 (UTC)Reply

Similarly in Pratchett's Night Watch:

'Now, where the hell is Carcer?'

'We don't know, sir [...] I'll tell the men to—'

'No, don't. He'll keep. After all, where's he going to go?'

I'm beginning to wonder whether it actually isn't "to remain edible or otherwise usable", only used figuratively. --Droigheann (talk) 16:23, 2 June 2016 (UTC)Reply