keep up appearances

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

keep 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

• French: sauver les apparences (fr)
• Hungarian: fenntartja a látszatot
• Italian: mantenere le apparenze
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: сохранять хорошую мину при плохой игре
• Spanish: mantener las apariencias (es)
• Swedish: hålla skenet uppe