to control people in such a strict or cruel way that they have very little freedom or very few rights
to control something and prevent it from increasing in size or number
to make a noise less loud
to stop someone from achieving what they are capable of achieving
to succeed in keeping food in your stomach although you feel as if you want to vomit
Even if you’re intelligent, they still try to keep you down.
I do my best to keep down my fat intake but I do draw the line at those dreadful low-fat spreads.
I’d eat something if I thought I could keep it down.
Keep it down! I’m trying to sleep.
Like so many paper mills, the economics of scale keep increasing so as to keep down production costs.
The cats help to keep down the rats.
These immigrants were kept down for decades.
We have to try and keep costs down.
keeps down
keeping down
kept down
There is no origin for this phrasal verb
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