Upkeep Meaning

/ˈʌpkip/
B2

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Listen pronunciation

nounMaintenance; the act or effort of keeping something in good and working condition.

verbTo maintain (something) or keep it in good repair.

The regular upkeep of our servers is paramount to ensuring high uptime.
It's not the initial cost that worries me. It's the upkeep.
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old mansion required expensive constant ____ to prevent the wood decay.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ of the large historic building requires a significant amount of money and a lot of regular work today.

From up + keep.

"[…] it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates." — 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
"The story of upkeep has been never-ending. Between 1997-2000, a major programme of maintenance entailed replacing superstructure timbers - 50 main rail beams were replaced with greenheart, along with a similar number of edge beams." — 2020 August 12, Andrew Mourant, “The tide is turning for a Victorian wonder”, in Rail, page 51:
"As for the city's buildings, it mostly resembled a town of white spires and cobblestone streets lined with flowerbeds that were upkept by magical means." — 2014, James Blackthorne, Meditations of Madness: The Lost Empires Exposed:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words

CEFR Practice Quiz
The old mansion required expensive constant ____ to prevent the wood decay.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ of the large historic building requires a significant amount of money and a lot of regular work today.

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