Keep up
Keep up verb - To continue to operate or to meet one's needs.
Pick up
Pick up verb - To acquire complete knowledge, understanding, or skill in.
Both terms in one sentence
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She doesn't pick up on it and he ends up sufficiently convinced of her fundamental decency and sincerity to eventually persuade her to keep up the masquerade, at least temporarily, for everyone's good.
Source: Film / While You Were Sleeping -
Flonne and Etna pick up, nearly instantly, that Laharl really does love her a lot, even though he constantly pretends like she's just another person who happens to hang around the castle, and goes above and beyond to keep her happy while trying poorly to keep up his jerk facade.
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In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, it was possible to pick up an item from a store's shelf, run around the shopkeeper very quickly until he couldn't see you (he tries to face you all the time but can't always keep up) and then run out the door with it.
Source: No Fair Cheating
Cite this Source
Pick up and Keep up. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 22, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/keep_up/pick_up
Keep up & Pick up. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/keep_up/pick_up>.
Pick up or Keep up. 2016. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/keep_up/pick_up.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "keep up" and "pick up" have occurred on timeline