ppl. a. [f. KEEP v.] In various senses derived from KEEP v.; spec.
1. a. Maintained or supported by a paramour.
1678. Dryden, Limberham, I. i. A kept mistress too! my bowels yearn to her already.
1741. trans. D’Argens’ Chinese Lett., xxii. 152. Some … have Houses of their own, as do most of the Kept-Misses at Paris.
1747. Wesley, Jrnl., 22 Nov. About six years ago, she was without God in the world, being a kept mistress.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 363. A kept woman … having been deserted by her protector, took to furious drinking.
b. Financially supported by, and in consequence under the private control of, interested persons.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Sept., 7/2. Mr. Chamberlain, speaking at Nottingham, is reported to have said:… ‘The Irish party is a kept party.’
1900. Daily News, 23 Feb., 6/4. The confederacy of international financiers working through a kept Press.
2. Maintained in ordinary or good condition.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 6. The kept grounds are very limited, and in simple but quiet taste.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 67. Every village having a kept piece of ground outside it which is the dancing place for the village.
