keep score

English

Verb

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

  1. (sports, games) To keep track of the score in a game.
  2. (by extension, figuratively) To keep track of figures, numbers, or other details in various other contexts.
    • 1974, Ashford & Simpson, “Over To Where You Are”, in I Wanna Be Selfish:
      What I've learned I'm not really sure / Oh so many times / I've stopped keeping score / Traces and faces and people I meet / Seem to be a circle that just repeats
    • 1977 April 30, Steven Blevins, “Sexism in the Bars, Baths, and Bushes”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
      Too many of us are attempting to "prove" our manhood by the tired heterosexual method of "keeping score".
    • 2000 August 12, meg...@abacom.com, “Inner Voice”, in sci.philosophy.meta‎[1] (Usenet):
      I've been praying on my own since very, very young [...] but it "degenerated" in me talking to God direct [...] and asking various things for others, sometimes for myself. It worked very often but I never kept score.
    1. (figuratively) To monitor and assess the actions and conduct of others, especially infractions or slights.
      • 1998 August 19, rena, “what's the deal??”, in alt.support.depression.flame‎[2] (Usenet):
        i never, EVER entered into a friendship with the idea that i was *owed* anything by that person. i never "kept score". not ever.
      • 2026 October 3, Danny Leigh, “The new movie supervillains”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13:
        We will see which side of history that puts him [Mark Zuckerberg] on, assuming someone is left to keep score.

Translations

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