ppl. a. Carefully preserved or stored; faithfully observed or guarded; maintained in good order or condition.
14[?]. in Rel. Ant., I. 233. He shall never have good larder, faire gardeyn, nor wele kepte councell.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. ii. 43. That well kept Register wherein is writ All ils men doe.
c. 1670. O. Heywood, Diaries (1881), II. 348. How much reall comfort a Christian hath in a well-kept fast.
1763. Museum Rust., I. 143. A well-kept garden.
1865. Dublin Univ. Mag., I. 19. Ruddy as a well-kept apple.
1871. Le Fanu, Rose & Key, II. 271. A well-kept road across a melancholy moor, called Haxted Heath, passes its front.
1898. Miss Yonge, J. Keble’s Parishes, xiv. 157. The village of well-kept, picturesque cottages lies in the valley beneath the park.
1915. Constance M. Villiers-Stuart, in Edin. Rev., July, 101. No craft traditions reveal more intimately the well-kept secrets of the older Gods.
