"keep someone guessing" meaning in English

See keep someone guessing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: keeps someone guessing [present, singular, third-person], keeping someone guessing [participle, present], kept someone guessing [participle, past], kept someone guessing [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|keep<,,kept> someone guessing}} keep someone guessing (third-person singular simple present keeps someone guessing, present participle keeping someone guessing, simple past and past participle kept someone guessing)
  1. To act in such a way that others do not fully understand what one has done or do not know what to expect next.
    Sense id: en-keep_someone_guessing-en-verb-Ot3Gkdvt Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for keep someone guessing meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> someone guessing"
      },
      "expansion": "keep someone guessing (third-person singular simple present keeps someone guessing, present participle keeping someone guessing, simple past and past participle kept someone guessing)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1924, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, “Chapter 7”, in The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson",
          "text": "She could not even dimly understand Helen's merry protestation that it was fun to make people wonder and keep them guessing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Geoffrey Zakarian, Geoffrey Zakarian's Town/Country: 150 Recipes for Life Around the Table, New York, N.Y.: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, page 8",
          "text": "But I do like to delight people with intense, focused, essential flavors, to give them the pure joy of fresh asparagus in springtime. I'm looking to amuse them and maybe (occasionally) keep them guessing: \"How did he get that asparagus to taste so... asparagussy?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Mike Ollerton, Getting the Buggers to Add Up, Continuum International Publishing Group, page 164",
          "text": "Being slightly off one’s trolley\nUppermost in my list of top four teaching behaviours is being ever-so-slightly crazy ... to keep students guessing whether or not I have lost my marbles, and being not quite so predictable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in such a way that others do not fully understand what one has done or do not know what to expect next."
      ],
      "id": "en-keep_someone_guessing-en-verb-Ot3Gkdvt"
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep someone guessing"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone guessing",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> someone guessing"
      },
      "expansion": "keep someone guessing (third-person singular simple present keeps someone guessing, present participle keeping someone guessing, simple past and past participle kept someone guessing)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1924, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, “Chapter 7”, in The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson",
          "text": "She could not even dimly understand Helen's merry protestation that it was fun to make people wonder and keep them guessing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Geoffrey Zakarian, Geoffrey Zakarian's Town/Country: 150 Recipes for Life Around the Table, New York, N.Y.: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, page 8",
          "text": "But I do like to delight people with intense, focused, essential flavors, to give them the pure joy of fresh asparagus in springtime. I'm looking to amuse them and maybe (occasionally) keep them guessing: \"How did he get that asparagus to taste so... asparagussy?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Mike Ollerton, Getting the Buggers to Add Up, Continuum International Publishing Group, page 164",
          "text": "Being slightly off one’s trolley\nUppermost in my list of top four teaching behaviours is being ever-so-slightly crazy ... to keep students guessing whether or not I have lost my marbles, and being not quite so predictable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in such a way that others do not fully understand what one has done or do not know what to expect next."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep someone guessing"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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