upkeep

[uhp-keep]

noun

1. the process or activity of providing an establishment, machine, person, etc., with necessary or proper maintenance, repairs, support, or the like.

   The machine's faulty operation shows that no one has attended to its upkeep.

2. the total sum of the costs or expenses for this.

upkeep

/ ˈʌpˌkiːp /

noun

1. the act or process of keeping something in good repair, esp over a long period; maintenance

2. the cost of maintenance

Word History and Origins

Origin of upkeep¹

First recorded in 1880–85; up- + keep

Example Sentences

The company has been lobbying federal, state and local governments to make it easier to replace its copper networks with more modern technologies, in part because of the cost of upkeep.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"I use the roads, so I should pay for the upkeep of them at the end of the day," he says.

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Others will be told to sell assets to pay for their upkeep - although officials are trying to avoid the PR optics of the controversial Danish policy of taking jewellery off people.

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About 30 million sheep inhabit Britain’s pastures, but its vast network of hand-built, dry-stone walls—there are 20,000 miles of them in Yorkshire alone—ceased to require upkeep after the invention of electric fences.

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Martock Parish Council, which is responsible for upkeep and maintenance of the churchyard, which is now full, secured the site with safety barriers.

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Related Words

• conservation 
• outlay 
• preservation 
• repair