keep under

keep under (third-person singular simple present keeps under, present participle keeping under, simple past and past participle kept under)

1. (transitive) To hold in subjection; hence, to oppress.
   • 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 68:

     In many places the local contingents of the army of “three million beggars” were regarded simply as animals to be kept under and exploited […]

• underkeep