Fail
Fail verb - To stop functioning.
Keep up
Keep up verb - To continue to operate or to meet one's needs.
Usage example: let's hope that old air conditioner keeps up through this heat wave
Both terms in one sentence
- Darkseid sometimes kills people who fail him — he has to keep up appearances — but since he uses his Omega Beams, he usually just resurrects them later when he needs them again.
Source: You Have Failed Me -
The human pilots manage to keep up with the robot plane for most of the film, except when the plot requires them to fail.
Source: Improbable Piloting Skills - The keyboards almost fail to keep up with the original's tempo, Peter oversings worse than you can imagine, and Price can't pronounce her words right. Enjoy!
Source: Horrible / Music
Cite this Source
Keep up and Fail. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 13, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/fail/keep_up
Fail & Keep up. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/fail/keep_up>.
Keep up or Fail. 2016. Accessed August 13, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/fail/keep_up.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "fail" and "keep up" have occurred on timeline