"keep someone honest" meaning in English

See keep someone honest in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: keeps someone honest [present, singular, third-person], keeping someone honest [participle, present], kept someone honest [participle, past], kept someone honest [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|keep<,,kept> someone honest}} keep someone honest (third-person singular simple present keeps someone honest, present participle keeping someone honest, simple past and past participle kept someone honest)
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see keep, honest.
    Sense id: en-keep_someone_honest-en-verb-Mr56NSi-
  2. (sports) To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory. Categories (topical): Sports
    Sense id: en-keep_someone_honest-en-verb-zHEHbLDJ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 13 87 Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports

Download JSON data for keep someone honest meaning in English (1.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> someone honest"
      },
      "expansion": "keep someone honest (third-person singular simple present keeps someone honest, present participle keeping someone honest, simple past and past participle kept someone honest)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see keep, honest."
      ],
      "id": "en-keep_someone_honest-en-verb-Mr56NSi-",
      "links": [
        [
          "keep",
          "keep#English"
        ],
        [
          "honest",
          "honest#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sports",
          "orig": "en:Sports",
          "parents": [
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 87",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Jones is down ten games to two, but still keeping his opponent honest.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory."
      ],
      "id": "en-keep_someone_honest-en-verb-zHEHbLDJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sports) To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep someone honest"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept someone honest",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> someone honest"
      },
      "expansion": "keep someone honest (third-person singular simple present keeps someone honest, present participle keeping someone honest, simple past and past participle kept someone honest)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see keep, honest."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "keep",
          "keep#English"
        ],
        [
          "honest",
          "honest#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Sports"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Jones is down ten games to two, but still keeping his opponent honest.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sports",
          "sports"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(sports) To continue to compete strongly against someone despite being in an inferior position, so as not to allow one's opponent an easy victory."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep someone honest"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.