phrasal verb · neutral
keep up appearances
UK/kiːp ʌp əˈpɪərənsɪz/US/kiːp ʌp əˈpɪrənsɪz/keep·up·ap·PEAR·an·ces
to continue to act as if everything is normal or fine, especially to hide problems
Examples
“Even though the company was losing money, the CEO tried to keep up appearances.”
“They kept up appearances for the guests, but were struggling behind closed doors.”
“People sometimes keep up appearances on social media despite personal problems.”
Band 8 sentence
“Although the family was under financial strain, they kept up appearances for the sake of their children.”
Collocations
- keep up appearances in public
- keep up appearances despite difficulties
Word family
Common mistakes
keep appearance up→keep up appearances
keep up the appearance→keep up appearances
Say it for a higher band
5pretend→6act as if→7+keep up appearances
Synonyms
pretend
Easily confused
pretend
“She pretended to be happy, but inside she felt terrible.”
Related words
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