to keep up appearances
8
6.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
mantener las apariencias
- Even though they were struggling financially, they tried to keep up appearances during the dinner party.
- got to keep up appearances
- trying to keep up appearances
- struggled to keep up appearances
They were still keeping up appearances, you might say, in public.
- They were still keeping up appearances, you might say, in public.
- And so owning things that demonstrate that, you know, we're keeping up, keeping up appearances that show that we're a valued member of society.
Examples
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Sometimes, to keep up appearances, you have to spend sixty centimes on a drink and go correspondingly short of food.
Blog text (13) -
We have to keep up appearances.
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Cause you know, it's important to keep up appearances.
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You know, you should make more of an effort to keep up appearances.
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And while he tried to keep up appearances, he had become over his head in debt.
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A man who worked at home had to take special trouble to keep up appearances.
Fiction book (1998) -
Although our beautiful house and the few professional outfits we purchased were enough to keep up appearances for a while, they began to show wear.
Fiction book (2002) -
They were still keeping up appearances, you might say, in public.
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But milord has to keep up appearances at court.
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She was tired of marking time, keeping up appearances, and waiting for her life to begin.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
∞
2.3
To act as if something is true when it is not
4
8.4
Act as if you are better than other people
Antonyms
How Sincere
Surface Forms
Morphology
keep + up + appearance
The verb phrase 'keep up' means 'maintain' and 'appearances' refers to an outward impression or pretense; together they transparently yield 'maintain an outward impression' — i.e. pretend everything is normal. This compositional reading follows normal English patterns and has direct parallels in many languages (e.g. Spanish 'mantener las apariencias'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Keep up appearances comes from the simple image of people tidying their home, fixing their clothes and smiling when guests arrive so everything looks fine. They would keep up the visible appearances even if things were bad inside, so today it means 'to pretend everything is normal'.