English

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Etymology

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See tab (tablet or slate used for keeping a record of accounts).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To monitor; to keep track of; to watch.
    If you are careful to keep tabs on your finances, you should be able to stay within a budget.
    The police kept close tabs on him during the holidays.
    • 1910, Stewart Edward White, chapter 85, in The Rules of the Game:
      He might have spent the hours camped under the trees of the more remote meadow, whence in the brilliant moonlight he could keep tabs on the trails.
    • 1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 16, in Rainbow Valley:
      I'll catch him—I'll trip him up—I'll keep tabs on his arguments.
    • 2010, Andrew Lee Butters, “Why the U.S. Is Back on the Road to Damascus”, in Time:
      Syria's much feared state-security apparatus keeps close tabs on everyone entering and leaving the embassy.
    • 2023 May 18, Christopher Clarey, “Even as He’s Out, Rafael Nadal Will Always Be a Part of the French Open”, in The New York Times[1]:
      Nadal, absent from the draw for the first time nearly two decades, said he won’t watch it all from afar, but he will be keeping tabs.

Usage notes

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