keep the home fires burning

English

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.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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.
   • 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.

   • 2005, Karen Houppert, Home fires burning: married to the military, for better or worse‎^[2], →ISBN, page xix:

     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 […]

See also

• keep the lights on
• keep the wolf from the door