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Glite Dictionary
to keep in touch

to keep in touch

75 2.1
Continue to talk or write to someone after you move away
  • phrasal verb
  • /kip ɪn tʌtʃ/
translation icon : mantenerse en contacto
  • After moving to a different city, she made sure to keep in touch with her family.
  • keep in touch with people
  • keep in touch with teachers
  • keep in touch with students

I can't help you right now, but keep in touch, you know, that's a win.

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Examples

  • We enjoyed each other's company, and we've kept in touch ever since.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • So you'll need to use this website regularly to keep in touch with the course.

  • No matter what happens, keep in touch with who you are when you start.

  • So keep in touch with us to find out how to do that.

    ZOE

  • Then it's really easy for me to keep in touch with people.

  • I did an interview with him last month and we're going to keep in touch about that.

  • What do you say we just keep in touch and we'll see what happens?

    Wandering Eye (2011)

  • Well, you know, it's hard to keep in touch with anyone during this pandemic.

  • Now they lived a thousand miles apart and kept in touch by telephone a few times a year.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • We'll keep in touch.

    Hollywood Ending (2002)

Synonyms

to correspond
vsto keep in touch
18 3.7

Write letters or messages to someone regularly over time

is broader, covering any ongoing contact after people separate

Antonyms

to cut off
620 3.8

To stop something suddenly before it is finished

to disconnect
161 3.5

To separate something so it is no longer joined, for example remove a cable or turn off power

How Connected

to keep in touch
75 2.1
to make contact
113 2.8
ghosting
  • Slang
1 7.2

Surface Forms

keep in touch infinitive
keeping in touch present participle
keeps in touch third person singular
kept in touch past
kept in touch past participle

Morphology

keep + in + touch

The meaning 'to continue to communicate' is directly and compositionally derived from 'keep' (to continue/retain) plus 'in touch' (being in contact). This is a literal, cross-linguistically common construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrasal verb keep in touch comes from the simple image of people staying physically in contact—keep in touch by holding a hand or a rope so they do not get lost. That's why it means 'to continue to communicate'.