v. Sc. and north. dial. 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. t. kept having been carried into the present and infinitive. In some Sc. dialects, now cape (kēp), 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, trans. 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. H. 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, Fy gar rub her, iv. Laying a’ the wyte On you, if she kepp ony skaith.
Hence Kep sb., a catch; a haul; also in Mining = KEEP sb. 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.
