keep the home fires burning
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]keep the home fires burning (third-person singular simple present keeps the home fires burning, present participle keeping the home fires burning, simple past and past participle kept the home fires burning)
- (idiomatic, colloquial) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
- 1881, Andrew Jackson Davis, The genesis and ethics of conjugal love[1], page 115:
- We got our water from a pump in the backyard and there is no domestic fatigue indoors or out-of-doors that I have not done continuously, not for fun but to keep the home fires burning.