keep up

verb

kept up; keeping up; keeps up

transitive verb

: to persist or persevere in

kept up the good work

also : maintain, sustain

keep standards up

intransitive verb

1

: to keep adequately informed or up-to-date

keep up on international affairs

2

: to continue without interruption

rain kept up all night

3

: to maintain contact or relations with someone

keep up with old friends

Synonyms

• hold out
• hold up
• last
• prevail
• survive

Examples of keep up in a Sentence

let's hope that old air conditioner keeps up through this heat wave

kept the house up while the owners were gone

Recent Examples on the Web

The use of backing tracks is an open secret among many performers; last summer, footage of Frankie Valli, at 90, barely keeping up with his backing track, caused a brief viral scandal. —Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 29 Apr. 2025

But Edmonton kept up the pressure and continued to look like the fresher team. —Eric Stephens, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2025

The trick now is going to be to keep up that growth. —Evan Clark, Footwear News, 29 Apr. 2025

Meanwhile, the small-scale wine growers didn’t have the resources to keep up. —The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 28 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for keep up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup

Kids Definition

keep up

verb

1

: maintain sense 1

keep standards up

2

: to stay well informed about something

keep up on the news

3

: to continue without interruption

rain kept up all night

4

: to stay even with others (as in a race)