keep up

kept up; keeping up; keeps up

Definition of keep 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 & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about keep up

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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 raiders needed to keep up with a fleeing al-Baghdadi in his final moments, and the best way to do that—for now anyway—was to unleash a fur missile named Conan. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Did U.S. Troops Have a Robot on the ISIS Raid?," 31 Oct. 2019 In general, trying to keep up as much of your skin-care routine as possible is ideal. — Sarah Jacoby, SELF, "9 Easy Tips for Healthy, Happy Skin While Traveling," 25 Oct. 2019 Apple has also struggled to keep up momentum in newer markets like China and India, which have burgeoning middle classes with disposable income, but aren’t necessarily seeing a reason to pay the premium for an Apple device. — Mike Murphy, Quartz, "Apple explained, in charts," 19 Oct. 2019 Early versions of the Snapdragon chips that Qualcomm shipped for PCs, such as the Snapdragon 855, couldn’t keep up with Intel’s Core, though the battery life far outpaced what Core laptops could offer. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Microsoft Surface wins would be a big deal for AMD, Qualcomm," 1 Oct. 2019 Department of Agriculture employees in the Farm Belt have struggled to keep up with the Market Facilitation Program, an initiative designed by the Trump administration to mitigate losses from its disputes with China and other trading partners. — NBC News, "U.S. has paid more than $1M in interest for late bailout payments to farmers," 28 Aug. 2019 The company's stock price has been in steep decline since 2015 as GameStop has struggled to keep up with the increasingly digital world of video game sales since roughly 2013. — Dallas News, "Why is 'Big Short' investor betting big on struggling GameStop?," 23 Aug. 2019 Additionally, declining academic performances may indicate that a child is struggling to keep up with what’s going on in the classroom. — Emilia Benton, Houston Chronicle, "Hearing and vision check-ups are another key aspect of starting a new school year," 31 July 2019 The partnership comes months after reports that Impossible Food was struggling to keep up with demand for customers like White Castle and Burger King. — Abdel Jimenez, chicagotribune.com, "Impossible Foods has tapped an Aurora meat processor to make its plant-based burgers," 31 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'keep up.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near keep up

keep under surveillance

keep up appearances

keep up one's end

Statistics for keep up

Last Updated

13 Nov 2019

Time Traveler for keep up

The first known use of keep up was in the 15th century

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