Word.ws English Dictionary

kept up appearances

kept up appearances is the simple past and past 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 kept up appearances

What is kept up appearances the simple past and past participle of?
Kept up appearances is the simple past and past participle of keep up appearances.

Words near kept up appearances in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept 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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