Word.ws English Dictionary

keep up with the Joneses

keep up with the Joneses verb: to act or make purchases for status or image rather than out of need, especially for the purpose of competing with friends, neighbors, or society.

Verb

keep up with the Joneses (third-person singular simple present keeps up with the Joneses, present participle keeping up with the Joneses, simple past and past participle kept up with the Joneses)

  1. (idiomatic) To act or make purchases for status or image rather than out of need, especially for the purpose of competing with friends, neighbors, or society.
    • Do you really need a fancy new car or are you just trying to keep up with the Joneses?
    • One of the greatest pitfalls in the path of any young couple is the feeling that they must "keep up with the Joneses." We all think of ourselves as belonging to a certain social group—whether we express it in snobbish terms or not.1938, William F. Bigelow, editor, The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book, page 74

keep up with the Joneses meaning in Vietnamese

keep up with the Joneses in Vietnamese

act or make purchases for status or image
so bì

Forms of keep up with the Joneses

third-person singular presentkeeps up with the Joneses
present participlekeeping up with the Joneses
past participlekept up with the Joneses
pastkept up with the Joneses

Origin of keep up with the Joneses

Various theories; see Wikipedia article.

Questions about keep up with the Joneses

What does keep up with the Joneses mean?
Keep up with the Joneses means to act or make purchases for status or image rather than out of need, especially for the purpose of competing with friends, neighbors, or society.
What is keep up with the Joneses in Vietnamese?
Keep up with the Joneses in Vietnamese is so bì. See Keep up with the Joneses meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is keep up with the Joneses?
Keep up with the Joneses is a verb.
What is the past tense of keep up with the Joneses?
The past tense of keep up with the Joneses is kept up with the Joneses.

Words near keep up with the Joneses in the dictionary

  1. keep tryst
  2. keep under
  3. keep up
  4. keep up appearances
  5. keep up with
  6. keep up with the Joneses
  7. keep up with the times
  8. keep vigil
  9. keep ward
  10. keep watch
  11. keep wicket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keep up with the Joneses (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 up with the Joneses.ogg.

Cite this entry: “keep up with the Joneses.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_up_with_the_joneses. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.