Word.ws English Dictionary

keep one's head up

keep one's head up verb: to stay optimistic when dealing with adversity.

Verb

keep one's head up (third-person singular simple present keeps one's head up, present participle keeping one's head up, simple past and past participle kept one's head up)

  1. (intransitive) To stay optimistic when dealing with adversity.

Forms of keep one's head up

third-person singular presentkeeps one's head up
present participlekeeping one's head up
past participlekept one's head up
pastkept one's head up

Questions about keep one's head up

What does keep one's head up mean?
Keep one's head up means to stay optimistic when dealing with adversity.
What part of speech is keep one's head up?
Keep one's head up is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep one's head up?
The past tense of keep one's head up is kept one's head up.

Words near keep one's head up in the dictionary

  1. keep one's head above water
  2. keep one's head below the parapet
  3. keep one's head down
  4. keep one's head on a swivel
  5. keep one's head on one's shoulders
  6. keep one's head up
  7. keep one's head upon one's shoulders
  8. keep one's knickers on
  9. keep one's lips sealed
  10. keep one's mouth shut
  11. keep one's nerve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's head up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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