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upkeep

noun
/ˈʌpkip/US

Etymology

From up + keep.

  1. derived from *ǵab-✻
  2. inherited from *kōpijaną✻ — “to look, heed, watch, observe”
  3. inherited from *kōpijan✻
  4. inherited from cēpan — “to seize, hold, observe”
  5. inherited from kepen — “to keep, guard, look after, watch”
  6. compounded as upkeep — “up + keep”

Definitions

  1. Maintenance

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

    • I would enjoy having a swimming pool, but I don't want to deal with the upkeep.
    • […] it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates.
    • 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.

  2. To maintain (something) or keep it in good repair.

    • Do you know how to upkeep a boat?
    • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at upkeep. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01upkeep02effort03exertion04physical05human06compassionate07emergency08hospital09care

A definitional loop anchored at upkeep. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at upkeep

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA