keep tabs on someone/something
keep tabs on (someone or something)
To routinely monitor or observe someone or something; to keep track of someone or something. It was revealed that the FBI kept tabs on him for years just because he once attended a meeting of a radical group. Keep tabs on the amount of feedback we get so that we know how many people this issue affects.
See also: keep, on, tab
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
keep tabs on someone/something
COMMON If you keep tabs on someone or something, you make sure that you know what they are doing or what is happening to them, often in order to control them. We know that somebody was keeping tabs on her. It's their job to keep tabs on the financial situation. Note: Originally, this was an American expression which uses an American sense of `tab', meaning an account or bill, which can be used to keep a record of what someone spends.
See also: keep, on, someone, something, tab
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
- be/have done with somebody/something
- be in line with (someone or something)
- better of
- (someone or something) promises well
- begin with
- begin with (someone or something)
- bird has flown, the
- beware of
- beware of (someone or something)
- be rough on (someone or something)