As we ate, he started telling me his story. He was a little hesitant at first. “I knew this lady … as a matter of fact, well, she was my mistress.” The man he’d had the fight with was this woman’s brother. He told me he’d been keeping her.
I'm not familiar with the use of keep in the sentence above. I've never heard someone said "keep somebody". Looking it up in the dictionary, I found a meaning which I think is what the author's trying to say:
to guard or protect someone: The Lord bless you and keep you.
Can somebody confirm this to me ? And Is this common in spoken language ?
Best Answer
For a man to "keep" a woman, or for a woman to "keep" a man, means that they are having an illicit romantic relationship and the person doing the "keeping" is paying all the bills. Like if a man has a girlfriend and she lives in his house and she doesn't have a job and so he is paying all the expense, than we say that he is "keeping her" and that she is a "kept woman".
Note that this term is not used for a wife, where traditionally the husband was expected to provide a house and pay the bills. It is sometimes used for a husband if he does not have a job but his wife does. But usually in this case it's used as a simile, that is, we don't say, "He is a kept man" but "He is like a kept man." He's not REALLY "kept" because they're married, but they act like he is.
The Bible quote you give, "the Lord bless you and keep you", is archaic language. No one uses the word "keep" today to mean "protect" except when quoting old text. Someone might say "keep you safe" or "keep you from harm" or some other longer phrase.