noun
- a person who guards or watches, as at a prison or gate.
- a person who assumes responsibility for another’s behavior: He refused to be his brother’s keeper.
- a person who owns or operates a business (usually used in combination): a hotelkeeper.
- a person who is responsible for the maintenance of something (often used in combination): a zookeeper; a groundskeeper.
- a person charged with responsibility for the preservation and conservation of something valuable, as a curator or game warden.
- a person who conforms to or abides by a requirement: a keeper of his word.
- a fish that is of sufficient size to be caught and retained without violating the law.
- Football. a play in which the quarterback retains the ball and runs with it, usually after faking a hand-off or pass.
- something that serves to hold in place, retain, etc., as on a door lock.
- something that lasts well, as a fruit.
- guard ring.
- an iron or steel bar placed across the poles of a permanent horseshoe magnet for preserving the strength of the magnet during storage.
noun
- a person in charge of animals, esp in a zoo
- a person in charge of a museum, collection, or section of a museum
- a person in charge of other people, such as a warder in a jail
- See goalkeeper, wicketkeeper, gamekeeper
- a person who keeps something
- a device, such as a clip, for keeping something in place
- a soft iron or steel bar placed across the poles of a permanent magnet to close the magnetic circuit when it is not in use
c.1300 (late 13c. as a surname), “one who has charge of some person or thing, warden,” agent noun from keep (v.). Sense of “one who carries on some business” is from mid-15c. Sporting sense (originally cricket) is from 1744. Meaning “something (or someone) worth keeping” is attested by 1999. Brother’s keeper is from Genesis iv:9.