Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) to hold back, refuse to give or share 2 (context transitive English) to restrict or restrain 3 (context transitive English) to prevent (a pupil) to advance in a course
WordNet
v. keep under control; keep in check; "suppress a smile"; "Keep your temper"; "keep your cool" [syn: restrain, suppress, keep, hold back]
secure and keep for possible future use or application; "The landlord retained the security deposit"; "I reserve the right to disagree" [syn: retain, hold, hold back]
hold back; refuse to hand over or share; "The father is withholding the allowance until the son cleans his room" [syn: withhold]
Usage examples of "keep back".
Come, thou jolly substance, with thy shining face, keep back thy inspiration, but hold forth thy tempting rewards.
As he marched slowly on, looking to the right and left in search of friendly faces, loud murmurs arose among the crowd, cries began to be raised, many persons pressed forward, and it required the utmost efforts of the arquebusiers, who were arranged in double lines all the way to the scaffold, to keep back the throng.
The moat was but twelve feet wide, and Archie and Sir John decided that this should be widened to fifty feet and deepened to ten, and that a dam should be built just below the castle to keep back the stream and fill the moat.
Ivan Ogareff and the housch-begui walked forward and almost immediately two men, whom the soldiers had not been able to keep back appeared before them.
You that keep back the sword from doing justice when Heaven calls for it, you may yourselves die by the sword, and the blood of all that perish by your neglect shall lie upon your heads.
He held in his hand one of the whips composed of thongs of white leather which were used by the vergers in those days to keep back the crowd.