▪ I. kep, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(kɛp)
Also 6 kepp, 8 keap, kaip, 9 cape.
[Differentiated form of keep v. (cf. s.v. senses 6, 7, 8), the short vowel of the pa. tense kept having been carried into the present and infinitive. In some Sc. dialects, now cape (keːp), with abnormal lengthening.]
1. trans. To meet, intercept, throw oneself in the way of (a person or thing); to stop the course of; to receive the force of (a blow); † to catch hold of.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 6875 Eneas to Aiax angarely rode, And he keppit hym cantly with a kene spere. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. (Douce MS.) 618 Gawayne bi þe coler keppes [Thornton MS. clekis] þe kniȝte. 1513 Douglas æneis x. xiii. 97 The bytand brand vphevyt keppit he. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. 165 Thay prepare..and quiklie cumis furth to kepp the Scottis in thair cuming. c 1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue iv. (1865) 12 Thre be, as it were, hammeres stryking, and the rest stiddies, kepping the strakes of the hammeres. Ibid. v. 14 Behind the voual, if a consonant kep it, we sound it alwayes as a k. 1793 T. Scott Poems 364 (E.D.D.) Whare Benlomond keps, an' cleaves the cluds. 1862 G. Macdonald D. Elginbrod I. 68 (E.D.D.) I'm no gaein to kep her at ilka turn. |
2. To catch, in the hands or otherwise, so as to prevent from falling; to catch (falling liquid) as in a vessel.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xiii. 30 Sum standis besyd and skaild law keppis. 1573 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxix. 88 Thay..keppit standfulis [of water] at the sklatis thair in. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 385, I shall be glad..to kep and receive the off-fallings..that fall from His sweet fingers. 1691 Ray N.C. Words 40 To kep a Ball, is to catch it; to keep it from falling. ? 17.. Song, Lords Marie (Jam.), The Lords Marie has kepp'd her locks Up wi' a gowden kame. 1790 Burns Elegy Capt. Henderson xii, Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear. 1795 Macneill Will & Jean i. vii, Will..just when fa'ing, Kepp'd her on his manly breast. a 1802 Lanckin x. in Child Ballads iv. 332/2 A bason..To cape this ladie's blood. a 1856 J. Ballantyne Song, ‘Confide ye ay in Providence’, Ilka blade o' grass keps its ain drap o' dew. |
† b. to kep skaith, to ‘catch’ or receive harm.
| 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxi. 14 That nane of ȝow kep ony skayth For laik of Premonitioun. 1721 Ramsay Fygar rub her iv, Laying a' the wyte On you, if she kepp ony skaith. |
Hence kep n., a catch; a haul; also in Mining = keep n. 4 d; kep-ball: see quot. 1877.
| 1790 A. Wilson Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) II. 90 She got an honest kepp Might ser't a decent miller Sax years an' mair. 1877 N. Linc. Gloss., Kep-ball (1) the game of catch⁓ball. (2) The ball with which it is played. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., Keps, the catches or rests at the top of a pit-shaft on which the cage is caught... This word is often written keeps, but its spoken form is keps. Mod. Sc. Gie's a kep! [i.e. a catch of a ball]. A clever kep. |
▪ II. kep
obs. f. keep n. and v.