keep pace

English

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Verb

keep pace (third-person singular simple present keeps pace, present participle keeping pace, simple past and past participle kept pace)

1. (idiomatic) To run at the same speed as a pacesetter
2. (idiomatic) To progress at the same rate as another; to keep up
   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 12, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

     As he had grown older, he found that he had grown away from his people. Their interests and his were far removed. They had not kept pace with him, nor could they understand aught of the many strange and wonderful dreams that passed through the active brain of their human king. So limited was their vocabulary that Tarzan could not even talk with them of the many new truths, and the great fields of thought that his reading had opened up before his longing eyes, or make known ambitions which stirred his soul.

   • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 157:

     From the 'fifties onwards the development of the South Wales & Monmouthshire coalfield went on at terrific speed, and railway construction was hard pressed to keep pace with it.

   • 1960 March, “Talking of Trains: The problem of the peak”, in Trains Illustrated, page 130:

     A £3½ million scheme to modify stations, track and signalling for the operation of ten- instead of eight-car trains on the South Eastern Division of the S.R. did no more than keep pace with the growth of peak-hour travel.

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