keep up appearances

English

Pronunciation

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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 pretend to be all right or that everything is going well; 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.

   With tact and management it would be possible to partially satisfy creditors, and keep up appearances for six months more.

Synonyms

• maintain appearances
• save appearances

Translations

pretend to be all right

• Dutch: de schijn ophouden
• Finnish: pitää yllä kulissia
• French: sauver les apparences (fr)
• German: den Schein wahren (de)
• Hungarian: fenntartja a látszatot
• Italian: mantenere le apparenze
• Japanese: 取り繕う (ja) (とりつくろう, toritsukurou)
• Polish: zachowywać pozory impf, zachować pozory pf
• Russian: де́лать хоро́шую ми́ну при плохо́й игре́ (ru) (délatʹ xoróšuju mínu pri ploxój igré), сохраня́ть хоро́шую ми́ну при плохо́й игре́ (soxranjátʹ xoróšuju mínu pri ploxój igré), держа́ть хоро́шую ми́ну при плохо́й игре́ (deržátʹ xoróšuju mínu pri ploxój igré)
• Spanish: mantener las apariencias (es), guardar las formas, salvar las apariencias (es)
• Swedish: hålla skenet uppe (sv)

See also

• save face