keep counsel

English

Verb

keep counsel (third-person singular simple present keeps counsel, present participle keeping counsel, simple past and past participle kept counsel)

1. (intransitive) To keep one's counsel.
   • 1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers:

     A lady, sir, as you will find, / Keeps counsel, or she speaks her mind, / Means what she says and scorns to fence / And palter with feigned innocence.