keep the peace

keep the peace

To maintain peace and/or order by preventing conflict. The National Guard was called out to keep the peace during the demonstrations. Growing up, I was always the one who had to keep the peace between my sisters.
See also: keep, peace
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

keep the peace

Maintain public order; prevent strife. For example, President Clinton ordered troops to Bosnia to keep the peace. This expression dates from the 1400s and was originally used more in the first sense, that is, of police keeping public order. It gained extra currency in the second half of the 1900s when military forces were sent to diverse places-Lebanon, Haiti, Bosnia-to stop warring factions.
See also: keep, peace
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

keep the peace

COMMON If someone keeps the peace, they stop people arguing or fighting. They were among the first troops sent to help keep the peace in the region. How did your mother succeed in keeping the peace between these two very different men?
See also: keep, peace
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

keep the peace

refrain or prevent others from disturbing civil order.
See also: keep, peace
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

ˌkeep the ˈpeace


1 prevent people from fighting, arguing, etc: The United Nations is sending in troops to keep the peace. If I’m at home I can keep the peace; if I’m not, they fight all day long.
2 (formal) not create a disturbance in a public place: The court ordered him to keep the peace.
See also: keep, peace
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

keep the peace

To maintain or observe law and order: officers who were sworn to keep the peace.
See also: keep, peace
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • peace
  • peace of mind
  • table
  • requiescat in pace
  • capitulate
  • capitulate to
  • capitulate to (someone or something)
  • smoke signals
  • peace and quiet
  • become reconciled with (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
Perhaps the most valuable section in these three chapters is Catterall's creative and nuanced treatment of the methods that local authorities used to keep the peace and defuse violence.
Douglas Catterall. Community without Borders: Scots Migrants and the Changing Face of Power in the Dutch Republic, C. 1600-1700
The government order allows police and military officials to use force if necessary to keep the peace in the short term, but the president will need more than a big stick to mend relations and prevent another round of uprisings.
Peru impossible
But the post-war anarchy in Iraq has also proven that you can't keep the peace that way.
Imperialism of neighbors: a new paradigm for the use of American power
"What I have to say is keep the peace. Let the children figure things out.
ICAF's Arts Olympiad 2000-2004
The plaintiffs argue that the total lack of local police has a detrimental impact on a community's ability to keep the peace, and operates as an open invitation for importing alcohol and drugs--the primary factors in most Native village crimes.
Native Tribes Sue Alaska. (Racefile)
The articles we have chosen to present provide a broad picture of how ESC is building closer ties with the international community and helping our warfighters keep the peace.
International Operations at the Electronic Systems Center
Obviously, the same tools can be used to either keep the peace or wreak mass destruction.
Remember Pearl Harbor
The actor who played the cuddly bear Bungle in the children's television show Rainbow was yesterday bound over to keep the peace after an alleged road rage incident.
Actor in road rage bungle
Washington says that the money will be forthcoming only if the warring factions in the long-running civil conflict can keep the peace. A peace agreement was signed in Lome last July, but its implementation has been difficult and sporadic.
S Leone's $130m peace carrot
troops are risking their lives there to help keep the peace in this tiny island territory in the Pacific.
WORLD AFFAIRS ANNUAL 1999-2000
Quoc Truong, 13, is one of 80 students trained to keep the peace at Toronto's Park Public School.
Worldkids: Quoc Truong
According to the Dayton Detente, the Christopher Accords, the Buckeye Bargain, we will be sending 20,000 troops to Bosnia to keep the peace. I bet Bob Dornan will push for a motion to allow openly gay people to serve in the military.
Holiday gifts
But neither do I believe that keeping silent or sidestepping conflict in an effort to keep the peace is any way to go about building a marriage--not if your expectations of marriage are the same as mine.
Couples should fight for a good marriage
The allowances are supposed to have been paid to them monthly for coming down to the Borno sector of the war theatre to keep the peace side by side the soldiers.
Mobile policemen shut down major highway in Maiduguri
AN Almondbury man has been ordered to keep the peace after throwing a drink at his sister.
Drunken man threw drink at his sister