keep company with

idiomatic phrase

: to spend time with (someone)
He keeps company with the rich and famous.
" … But if you keep company with a disloyal man, we might think that you were disloyal, too. See?"Arthur Conan Doyle
(old-fashioned) She's been keeping company with a young man. = A young man has been keeping company with her. [=They have been spending time together in a way that shows romantic interest.]
[Charlie] Chaplin continued making great movies, but the original innocence began to wane. Once he started keeping company with the likes of Albert Einstein and George Bernard Shaw, he wanted to make masterpieces, at times spending weeks on filming a single shot.The Associated Press
sometimes used figuratively
In her garden, roses keep company with lilies.

Examples of keep company with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In the town of Keystone, the National Presidential Wax Museum keeps company with Holy Terror Mini Golf and Dahl's Chainsaw Art. Betsy Andrews, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 July 2023 Sweet-and-spicy is not a surprising combination, especially in the South, where honey and hot sauce have long kept company with breakfast biscuits. Julia Moskin, New York Times, 8 May 2024 Our Favorite Fall Recipes That Easily Feed A Crowd 01 Apple-Cranberry Salad This mix of beautiful greens keeps company with apples and cranberries. Emma Phelps, Southern Living, 9 Sep. 2023 The mural keeps company with pieces by several other artists, many of them island regulars. Evan Moffitt, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2023 Packard is an appealing character to keep company with. Sarah Weinman, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2023 Ukraine now keeps company with Iraq, Syria, and Yemen as one of the world’s leading producers of internal refugees. Beth Mitchneck, Foreign Affairs, 24 Aug. 2016 Mammoth old-growth Western red cedar, Douglas firs and Western hemlock are the dominant species here, where 600- to 800-year-old trees keep company with lush swamps and marshes. Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 18 July 2021 So, this no-longer muse learns to keep company with herself. Saidiya Hartman, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'keep company with.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1502, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of keep company with was in 1502

Dictionary Entries Near keep company with

Cite this Entry

“Keep company with.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/keep%20company%20with. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

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