Dictionary

keep tabs on en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To monitor; to keep track of; to watch.
   • 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. 1910, Stewart Edward White, chapter 85, in The Rules of the Game:
   • 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. 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:
   • The police kept close tabs on him during the holidays.
   • If you are careful to keep tabs on your finances, you should be able to stay within a budget.
   • Syria's much feared state-security apparatus keeps close tabs on everyone entering and leaving the embassy. 2010, Andrew Lee Butters, “Why the U.S. Is Back on the Road to Damascus”, in Time:
   • I'll catch him—I'll trip him up—I'll keep tabs on his arguments. 1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 16, in Rainbow Valley:

Forms