어 지키다

protect, guard, hold to

지키다 covers guarding someone, keeping a promise, and holding a line. These lines do not settle into one pattern, though. Some are set phrases where the -어 belongs to the word before (250년에 걸쳐 지켜온 'defended across 250 years', 널 위해 지켜낼 왕관 'the crown I'll protect for you'); two are figures holding a level, where 가 is the subject marker rather than an ending (17%가 지켰습니다); one is just a chanted 지켜 지켜 지켜. Take the verb's meaning from these, not a construction.

The examples below did not fully pin this one down — read them before relying on the entry above.