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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
But Fitzgerald is keeping company with All-Stars and franchise cornerstones with a similar strikeout rate, so don’t worry too much. Grant Brisbee, The Athletic, 14 Aug. 2024 Glenn Close and Amy Adams have pinned their Oscar hopes to material penned by a right-wing commentator who keeps company with some of the most anti-democratic figures in the modern conservative movement. Sarah Jones, Vulture, 15 July 2024 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

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 17 Dec. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!