to keep a promise
5
2.5
- phrasal verb
:
cumplir una promesa
- He was determined to keep a promise he made to his friend last year.
and if I can't keep a promise to myself
- and if I can't keep a promise to myself
- If they lied to you, if they fail to keep a promise with you, that's the way they do business.
- What are the steps to not only repair that abandonment of self, but to also empower you to start keeping a promise to yourself?
- So even with my athletes, when I'm working with them, I will get them to link their their work ethic, their work schedule to keeping a promise they've made.
Examples
-
I kept a promise.
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Does anyone in this house know how to keep a promise?
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I only did it then to keep a promise.
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This your idea of keeping a promise?
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You see, Grace... I did know how to keep a promise.
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I came down here to keep a promise.
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I do sometimes keep a promise.
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A champion keeps a promise to the one they love the most.
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I'm keeping a promise.
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To keep a promise is to be as good as one's word; to break one is to risk forfeiting all trust in the goodness of one's word.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To do what you promised
265
2.8
To do what is required or promised
86
3.7
Continue and finish something you promised to do
70
3.9
To keep a promise
36
4.1
Keep a promise or pay what you owe
25
3.5
To stay loyal to a promise, plan or belief
7
4.4
Do what you promised in an agreement
Act in the same way you say you will
Antonyms
How Trustworthy
5
2.5
16
2.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to do what you have promised' is directly compositional from 'keep' (to maintain/fulfill) + 'promise' (an assurance), and the indefinite article 'a' is semantically empty here. This is a common, cross-linguistically transparent collocation following normal verb + object patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Keep a promise comes from the simple image of holding something safe. If you keep a promise, you treat your word like a small thing you must guard and not lose, so the phrase means 'to do what you promised'.