different between limit vs keep

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?m?t/
• (India) IPA^(key): /?l?m?t/, /?l?mt/
• Rhymes: -?m?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English limit, from Old French limit, from Latin l?mes (“a cross-path or balk between fields, hence a boundary, boundary line or wall, any path or road, border, limit”).

Noun

limit (plural limits)

1. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.

   There are several existing limits to executive power.

   Two drinks is my limit tonight.

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, chapter 21:

     It is the conductor which communicates to the inhabitants of regions beyond its limit […]

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, episode 17:

     Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space […]

   • 2012 March 6, Dan McCrum, Nicole Bullock and Guy Chazan, Financial Times, “Utility buyout loses power in shale gas revolution”:

     At the time, there seemed to be no limit to the size of ever-larger private equity deals, with banks falling over each other to arrange financing on generous terms and to invest money from their own private equity arms.

2. (mathematics) A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).

   The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.

3. (mathematics) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.

   Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.

4. (category theory) The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.

   Synonyms: inverse limit, projective limit

   Hyponyms: terminal object, categorical product, pullback, equalizer, identity morphism

5. (poker) Fixed limit.
6. The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.

   the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country
7. (obsolete) The space or thing defined by limits.
8. (obsolete) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
9. (obsolete) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.
10. (logic, metaphysics) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
11. (cycling) The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race.
12. (colloquial, as "the limit") A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc.

Synonyms

• (restriction): bound, boundary, limitation, restriction

Derived terms

Descendants

• German: Limit

Translations

Adjective

limit (not comparable)

1. (poker) Being a fixed limit game.

See also

• bound
• function

Etymology 2

From Middle English limiten, from Old French limiter, from Latin l?mit? (“to bound, limit, fix, determine”), from l?mes; see noun.

Verb

limit (third-person singular simple present limits, present participle limiting, simple past and past participle limited)

1. (transitive) To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries.

   • [The Chinese government] has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

2. (mathematics, intransitive) To have a limit in a particular set.

3. (obsolete) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.

Synonyms

• (restrict): See Thesaurus:hinder

Translations

Further reading

• limit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• limit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• limit at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• milit.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?m?t]

Noun

limit m

1. limit

Related terms

• limita
• limitní
• limitovat

Further reading

• limit in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• limit in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Hungarian

Etymology

From English limit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?limit]
• Hyphenation: li?mit
• Rhymes: -it

Noun

limit (plural limitek)

1. limit (the final, utmost, or furthest point)

Declension

References

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From German Limit.

Noun

lìmit m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. boundary
2. boundary that cannot be surpassed

Declension

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li.mit/

Noun

limit

1. frequency
2. closeness; compactness; density

Synonyms

• kalimitan

Derived terms

• malimit

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?p, IPA^(key): /ki?p/
• Rhymes: -i?p

Etymology

From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English c?pan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-Germanic *k?pijan? (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *?ab-, *??b- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian ž?bti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian ??????? (zabóta, “care, worry”)).

Verb

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

1. To continue in (a course or mode of action); not to intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act V, Scene 1,^[1]

     Both day and night did we keep company.

   • c. 1749, Tobias Smollett, The Regicide, Act V, Scene 5, in Plays and Poems Written by T. Smollett, M.D., London: T. Evans and R. Baldwin, 1777, p. 106,^[2]

     Within the portal as I kept my watch,

2. (heading, transitive) To hold the status of something.
   1. To maintain possession of.

   2. (ditransitive) To maintain the condition of; to preserve in a certain state.
   3. (transitive) To record transactions, accounts, or events in.

   4. (transitive) To enter (accounts, records, etc.) in a book.
   5. (archaic) To remain in, to be confined to.
      • 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, III.ii,

        The wrathful skies / Gallow the very wanderers of the dark / And make them keep their caves.

      • 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt 2008, p. 71:

        The following day she was so ill that she kept her bed; the husband went not once to enquire for her, nor did he send any message: he also kept his apartment, and was heard walking backwards and forwards with a hurried pace the whole of that day.
   6. To restrain.

   7. (with from) To watch over, look after, guard, protect.
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

        cursse on thy cruell hond, / That twise hath sped; yet shall it not thee keepe / From the third brunt of this my fatall brond […].

   8. To supply with necessities and financially support a person.

   9. (of living things) To raise; to care for.
      • 1914, Robert Joos, Success with Hens, Forbes & company, p.217:

        Of course boys are boys and need watching, but there is little watching necessary when they keep chickens.
   10. To maintain (an establishment or institution); to conduct; to manage.
       • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene 2,^[4]

         like a pedant that keeps a school

       • 1630, John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: John Partridge, p. 114,^[5]

         They were honourably accompanied and with great estate brought to London, where euery of them kept house by himselfe.

       • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   11. To have habitually in stock for sale.
3. (heading, intransitive) To hold or be held in a state.
   1. (obsolete) To reside for a time; to lodge; to dwell.
      • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene 2,^[6]

        Knock at his study, where, they say, he keeps,

        To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge;

   2. To continue.
   3. To remain edible or otherwise usable.
      • 1707, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry

        If the malt be not thoroughly dried, the ale it makes will not keep.

   4. (copulative) To remain in a state.

4. (obsolete) To wait for, keep watch for.
5. (intransitive, cricket) To act as wicket-keeper.

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To take care; to be solicitous; to watch.
   • c. 1530, William Tyndale, A Pathway into the holy Scripture in The Whole Workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes, London: John Day, 1573, p. 384,^[7]

     […] kepe that the lustes choke not the word of God that is sowen in vs,

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in session; to take place.

8. (transitive) To observe; to adhere to; to fulfill; not to swerve from or violate.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 2 Timothy 4.7,^[8]

     I have kept the faith:

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, London, Book 7, lines 1271-1272,^[9]

     Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all

     Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

     His great command;

9. (transitive, dated, by extension) To visit (a place) often; to frequent.
   • c. 1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, Act III, Scene 1,^[10]

     […] ’tis hallowed ground;

     No Maid seeks here her strayed Cow, or Sheep,

     Fairies, and fawns, and satyrs do it keep:

10. (transitive, dated) To observe or celebrate (a holiday).

Synonyms

• (maintain possession of): retain
• (maintain the condition of): preserve, protect
• (to reside for a time): See also Thesaurus:sojourn

Derived terms

Pages starting with “keep”.

Related terms

• for keeps

Translations

Noun

keep (countable and uncountable, plural keeps)

1. (historical) The main tower of a castle or fortress, located within the castle walls.

   Synonym: donjon

2. The food or money required to keep someone alive and healthy; one's support, maintenance.

3. (obsolete) The act or office of keeping; custody; guard; care; heed; charge; notice.

4. The state of being kept; hence, the resulting condition; case.

5. (obsolete) That which is kept in charge; a charge.

6. (engineering) A cap for holding something, such as a journal box, in place.

Derived terms

• earn one's keep

Translations

See also

• donjon

Anagrams

• Ekpe, PEEK, Peek, Peke, kepe, peek, peke

Dutch

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ke?p/
• Hyphenation: keep
• Rhymes: -e?p
• Homophone: cape

Noun

keep f (plural kepen, diminutive keepje n)

1. notch, carven mark

   Synonyms: inkeping, kerf

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “cf. West Frisian "keepfink", prob. a borrowing”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ke?p/
• Hyphenation: keep
• Rhymes: -e?p
• Homophone: cape

Noun

keep m (plural kepen, diminutive keepje n)

1. brambling, Fringilla montifringilla

Etymology 3

Shortening of keeper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kip/
• Hyphenation: keep
• Rhymes: -ip
• Homophone: kiep

Noun

keep m (plural keeps)

1. (ball games, chiefly soccer, colloquial) goalkeeper

Estonian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

keep (genitive keebi, partitive keepi)

1. cloak, capote, gaberdine

Declension

Middle English

Noun

keep

1. notice; note; observance

   take keep — “take note”

   • And shame it is, if a preest take keep

     A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep

Yucatec Maya

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ke?p?/

Noun

keep (plural keepo?ob)

1. (anatomy) penis

Synonyms

• toon