keep one's pecker up
keep one's pecker up verb: to remain cheerful; keep smiling.
Verb
keep one's pecker up (third-person singular simple present keeps one's pecker up, present participle keeping one's pecker up, simple past and past participle kept one's pecker up)
- To remain cheerful; keep smiling.
- “Of course you will,” said Wraysford, cheerily; “it’s hard lines at first. Keep your pecker up, young ’un.” The young ’un, despite this friendly advice, felt very far from keeping up his pecker. But he did his best, and worked his face into a melancholy sort of a smile.1880, Talbot Baines Reed, The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's
- , Episode 12, The Cyclops
--Keep your pecker up, says Joe. She'd have won the money only for the other dog.
Forms of keep one's pecker up
| third-person singular present | keeps one's pecker up |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping one's pecker up |
| past participle | kept one's pecker up |
| past | kept one's pecker up |
Origin of keep one's pecker up
From pecker, meaning "nose", by analogy with beak.
Questions about keep one's pecker up
- What does keep one's pecker up mean?
- Keep one's pecker up means to remain cheerful; keep smiling.
- What part of speech is keep one's pecker up?
- Keep one's pecker up is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep one's pecker up?
- The past tense of keep one's pecker up is kept one's pecker up.
Words near keep one's pecker up in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's pecker 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-keep one's pecker up.ogg.
Cite this entry: “keep one's pecker up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_one%27s_pecker_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.