"keep the home fires burning" meaning in English

See keep the home fires burning in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-keep the home fires burning.ogg Forms: keeps the home fires burning [present, singular, third-person], keeping the home fires burning [participle, present], kept the home fires burning [participle, past], kept the home fires burning [past]
Etymology: A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc. Head templates: {{en-verb|keep<,,kept> the home fires burning}} 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)
  1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community. Tags: colloquial, idiomatic Related terms: keep the lights on, keep the wolf from the door
    Sense id: en-keep_the_home_fires_burning-en-verb-WSfT6dbd Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> the home fires burning"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1881, Andrew Jackson Davis, The genesis and ethics of conjugal love, page 115:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Karen Houppert, Home fires burning: married to the military, for better or worse, →ISBN, page xix:",
          "text": "While the military has moved to gender-neutral language in all its official descriptions of the \"spouses\" who keep the home fires burning during deployments […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community."
      ],
      "id": "en-keep_the_home_fires_burning-en-verb-WSfT6dbd",
      "links": [
        [
          "routine",
          "routine"
        ],
        [
          "necessities",
          "necessities"
        ],
        [
          "home",
          "home"
        ],
        [
          "community",
          "community"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "keep the lights on"
        },
        {
          "word": "keep the wolf from the door"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-keep the home fires burning.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/40/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep the home fires burning"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "keeps the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "keeping the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "kept the home fires burning",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "keep<,,kept> the home fires burning"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "keep the lights on"
    },
    {
      "word": "keep the wolf from the door"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1881, Andrew Jackson Davis, The genesis and ethics of conjugal love, page 115:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Karen Houppert, Home fires burning: married to the military, for better or worse, →ISBN, page xix:",
          "text": "While the military has moved to gender-neutral language in all its official descriptions of the \"spouses\" who keep the home fires burning during deployments […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "routine",
          "routine"
        ],
        [
          "necessities",
          "necessities"
        ],
        [
          "home",
          "home"
        ],
        [
          "community",
          "community"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-keep the home fires burning.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/40/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/En-au-keep_the_home_fires_burning.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "keep the home fires burning"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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