keep tabs on

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

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

• Many adjectives can modify tabs, such as loose, tight, closer, closest, strict, daily, continuous, discreet.