keeper

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One that keeps, especially.
• noun An attendant, a guard, or a warden.
• noun One that has the charge or care of something.
• noun Sports A goalkeeper.
• noun Football A play made by the quarterback who keeps the ball after it is snapped and then runs with it.
• noun Informal One that is worth keeping, especially a fish large enough to be legally caught.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In cricket, a wicket-keeper or stumper.
• noun One who keeps, observes, or obeys.
• noun One who has the charge or keeping of anything; a caretaker; a custodian: often forming the second element of a compound: as, the keeper of the seals; a house keeper; a game keeper.
• noun One who maintains or carries on as proprietor; an owner or independent controller: as, a store keeper; an inn keeper.
• noun One who stays or abides.
• noun One who holds or maintains possession.
• noun That which keeps; something that serves as a guard or protection.
• noun A key which admits of being readily inserted and removed at pleasure to keep an object in its place.
• noun A loop on the end of a strap fitted with a bnckle, through which the other end is run after passing through the buckle; a small clasp.
• noun The box on a door-jamb into which the bolt of a lock protrndes when shot.
• noun A jamnut.
• noun A piece of soft iron placed in contact with the poles of a magnet when not in use, which tends, by induction, to maintain and even increase the power of the magnet; an armature.
• noun In the electromagnet of a dynamo, one of the lateral projections from the polar extremities to bring them just as near to the revolving armature as they can be without actually touching it.
• noun A reelkeeper.
• noun The mousing of a hook, which keeps it from being accidentally disengaged
• noun The gripper of the flint in a flint-lock gun.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who, or that which, keeps; one who, or that which, holds or has possession of anything.
• noun One who retains in custody; one who has the care of a prison and the charge of prisoners.
• noun One who has the care, custody, or superintendence of anything
• noun One who remains or keeps in a place or position.
• noun A ring, strap, clamp, or any device for holding an object in place
• noun The box on a door jamb into which the bolt of a lock protrudes, when shot.
• noun A ring serving to keep another ring on the finger.
• noun A loop near the buckle of a strap to receive the end of the strap.
• noun A fruit that keeps well.
• noun An iron bar that is placed on the poles of a horseshoe magnet, and held in place there by the magnetic force, to preserve the strength of the magnet when not in use.
• noun (O. Eng. Law) an officer who had the principal government of all things relating to the forest.
• noun [Eng.] a high officer of state, who has custody of the great seal. The office is now united with that of lord chancellor.
• noun [Eng.] the lord chancellor; -- a name given when the chancellor was an ecclesiastic.
• noun [Eng.] a high officer of state, through whose hands pass all charters, pardons, etc., before they come to the great seal. He is a privy councillor, and was formerly called clerk of the privy seal.
• noun a piece of iron which connects the two poles, for the purpose of keeping the magnetic power undiminished; an armature; called also keeper.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun One who keeps.
• noun slang A person or thing worth keeping.
• noun A person charged with guarding or caring for, storing, or maintaining something; a custodian, a guard. Short form of gamekeeper (Wikipedia).
• noun sports The player charged with guarding a goal or wicket. Short form of goalkeeper, wicketkeeper.
• noun A part of a mechanism that catches or retains another part, for example the part of a door lock that fits in the frame and receives the bolt.
• noun American football An offensive play in which the quarterback runs toward the goal with the ball after it is snapped.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun someone in charge of other people
• noun one having charge of buildings or grounds or animals