To Keep Up With the Joneses
I hope you had a good weekend.
Today, we are going to learn about the following phrase:
To Keep Up With the Joneses,
which means to appear to keep up with the friends and neighbours, in terms of financial and social status.
The concept “to keep up with the Joneses” came from a comic strip of the same name, which ran from 1913 to 1941 in many US newspapers.
It was about the struggle of a family trying to keep up with the neighbourhood, with regards to social status on a limited budget.
Example:
- He bought a car above his means, in order to keep up with the Joneses.
Homework:
- What things have you done that might be considered as trying to keep up with the Joneses? Maybe you overspent on a night out to impress your friends. Why not let us know, by leaving a comment?
Note: At The Queen’s English School, you can learn lots of interesting English phrases.
