- [uncountable] food, clothes and all the other things that a person needs to live; the cost of these things
- It's about time you got a job to earn your keep.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + keep- earn
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- [countable] a large strong tower, built as part of an old castle
- He made his way up a flight of steep stairs and into the main keep of the castle.
Word Originlate Old English cēpan ‘seize, take in’, also ‘care for, attend to’, of unknown origin.
Idioms
See keep in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryearn your keep
- to do useful or helpful things in return for being allowed to live or stay somewhere
- He was willing to earn his keep.
- to be worth the amount of time or money that is being spent
- He felt he no longer deserved such a high salary. He just wasn't earning his keep.
- All this new technology will have to earn its keep.
for keeps
- (informal) forever
- Is it yours for keeps or does he want it back?
Check pronunciation:
keep