maintain appearances

present singular third person maintains appearances · participle present maintaining appearances · participle past maintained appearances · past maintained appearances

1. Synonym of keep up appearances.

   1 more example

   Under the guise of being “online” and capable of disseminating news instantaneously (known colloquially as “retweeting”), being active on Twitter, for media workers, gives the effect of fulfilling one’s occupational duty as well as all the parts of professional upkeep that, in the physical world, involve being in the right rooms, overhearing the right things, and more or less maintaining appearances.

   April 14 2022, Delia Cai, “Severance, the New York Times’s Twitter Guidelines, and the Forever Illusion of Work-Life Balance”, in Vanity Fair

   Synonyms: keep up appearances