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
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 figurativelyThe Associated PressIn her garden, roses keep company with lilies.
Examples of keep company with in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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
Jean Prouvé and Mexican Campeche chairs keep company with Philippe Starck gnome stools and a 19th-century French country farm table that sat in the brothers’ childhood kitchen in New Orleans.
—William Li, ELLE Decor, 14 July 2022
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
Jean Prouvé and Mexican Campeche chairs keep company with Philippe Starck gnome stools and a 19th-century French country farm table that sat in the brothers’ childhood kitchen in New Orleans.
—William Li, ELLE Decor, 14 July 2022
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.
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 28 May. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share