keep tabs on

1. 1.

   keep a record on or watch attentively

   “The government keeps tabs on the dissidents”

   Broaderwatch

Questions about keep tabs on

What does keep tabs on mean?

keep tabs on means "keep a record on or watch attentively".

Is keep tabs on a common word?

keep tabs on is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.