keep up appearances
Meaning: To behave as if nothing is wrong, to protect one's reputation.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “They kept up appearances at the party, though the business was failing.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: "Appearances" are what others see, as opposed to the reality. The phrase is recorded from the 18th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: salvar las apariencias — literally: to save the appearances
More idioms — Daily Life
- at the stroke of a pen — By one quick official decision.
- not on your life — Absolutely not.
- make a clean break — To end something completely rather than gradually.
- a bit on the side — A secret lover; an affair.
- look out for number one — To put one's own interests first.
- with only the clothes on one's back — With no possessions at all.
More English idioms
- grow like wildfire — To spread very fast.
- tread carefully — To act with great caution in a delicate situation.
- pull the other one — Said to someone telling an obvious lie.
- use someone as a cat's paw — To get someone else to do one's dirty work.
- lose one's marbles — To go crazy.
- well, I never! — An exclamation of surprise or disbelief.
From our tongue twisters
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.