Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping up appearances

keeping up appearances is the present participle of keep up appearances.

Meaning of keep up appearances

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To artificially maintain an outward sign of normality; to maintain an appearance of wealth, comfort, or propriety.
    • For my father's sake, I thought I must keep up appearances, but the food stuck in my throat, and I could not swallow another mouthful.

Questions about keeping up appearances

What is keeping up appearances the present participle of?
Keeping up appearances is the present participle of keep up appearances.

Words near keeping up appearances in the dictionary

  1. keeping to oneself
  2. keeping together
  3. keeping tryst
  4. keeping under
  5. keeping up
  6. keeping up appearances
  7. keeping up with
  8. keeping up with the Joneses
  9. keeping up with the times
  10. keeping vigil
  11. keeping watch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping up appearances (page history and authors); keep up appearances (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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