{
  "id": "deferred-maintenance.upkeep",
  "term": "deferred maintenance",
  "sense": "upkeep",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "emergence",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "Work that does not happen when a thing is inside its window, so the range of the thing's parameters narrows without anyone seeing the wall that will end it.",
  "folk_gloss": "Putting off necessary repairs or care until later.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end",
      "narrow.spatial",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "passive",
    "novel_properties": [
      "invisible_maintenance"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The 2021 Texas power grid failure followed decades of skipped winterization upgrades to generators and pipelines.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The USS Thresher sank in 1963 after undetected hull corrosion narrowed safe dive depth below operational limits.",
      "domain": "military"
    },
    {
      "text": "By 2019, 45% of New York City’s subway signal systems were past their 50-year design life, running on deferred replacement.",
      "domain": "infrastructure"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "deferred maintenance"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — invisible maintenance"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-deferred-maintenance.upkeep"
}