keep one's nerve

present singular third person keeps one's nerve · participle present keeping one's nerve · participle past kept one's nerve · past kept one's nerve

1. To keep one's cool

   There in crisp fifty-pound notes was the answer to so many of his and his father’s problems. When he thought no one was looking, Frank moved his left foot slowly forward to cover it. If he kept his nerve, he could craftily slide it out of the room.

   2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN