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Definition 2024


keep_to_oneself

keep to oneself

English

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To purposely avoid interaction with others; to act introverted.
    She preferred to keep to herself after her husband died.
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To refrain from telling or otherwise expressing.
    • 1900, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, Chapter IV:
      Then he fell to gabbling strange and dreadful things which were not clearly understandable, and which the doctor admonished them to keep to themselves.