Word.ws English Dictionary

kept up with the Joneses

kept up with the Joneses is the simple past and past participle of keep up with the Joneses.

Meaning of keep up with the Joneses

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?

Questions about kept up with the Joneses

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

Words near kept up with the Joneses in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept up with the Joneses (page history and authors); 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.

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