kept up

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To maintain; to preserve; to prevent from deteriorating or falling.
   • This was the West Lancashire Railway, an ambitious but feckless little concern which, in a life lasting a quarter of a century, never earned a dividend, failed to keep up its debenture payments (despite a dangerous attempt to do so by issuing more debentures) and ended up in the hands of a receiver.1960 March, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 201
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To continue with (work, etc).
   • Keep up the good work, team!
3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To maintain position; to prevent oneself from falling behind; to stay even or ahead of another while walking, driving, etc.
   • They ran so fast I could hardly keep up.

   Synonyms:

   keep pace

4. To ensure that one remains well-informed about something.
   • I always try to keep up with (or "keep up on") current affairs.
5. To prevent someone from going to bed or to sleep
   • The crying baby kept me up all night
6. (obsolete) To use capital letters as much as reasonable.

   Antonyms:

   keep down