Dictionary

keep one's head above water en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.
   • Besides, I have had to borrow ten thousand dollars of him to keep my head above water. 1863, James Robert Gilmore (writing as Edmund Kirke), My Southern Friends, Tribune Assoc., ch. 17 http://books.google.ca/books?id=dYP7DDTj3s0C&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=%22dollars+of+him+to+keep+my+head+above+water%22&source=bl&ots=Oqhuty7vkS&sig=u9DiSN48lXn9IAiNsSMVmSUZdbk&hl=en&ei=OrXcStrdGIzFlAeQoPyhAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22dollars%20of%20him%20to%20keep%20my%20head%20above%20water%22&f=false
   • Strong sales in Europe and Asia are helping Tiffany keep its head above water at a time when US consumers are holding onto their wallets. 2008 March 24, Ruthie Ackerman, “Tiffany Goes International”, in Forbes, retrieved 19 Oct 2009:
   • I endeavoured to obtain a mitigation of this severe sentence, by offering myself to engage for the payment of the remaining sum, to preserve my mother's small salary unencumbered; but he interrupted me with the utmost cruelty, by saying . . . it would be pretty well if, for some years, I could keep my own head above water. 1764, M. C., A Lady of Quality, Each Sex in their Humour or, The Histories of the Families of Brightley, Finch, Fortescue, Shelburne and Stevens, London, p. 20
   • Blessed be God that ministreth ever some comfort to sweeten the calamities of life, and to keep the soul from fainting, to keep the head above water, that the deep waters swallow us not up. 1650, Edward Marbury, A Commentarie, or Exposition upon the Prophecie of Habakkuk, London, page 195:
   • The capitalist system being one under which a profit must be made by any enterprise that is to keep its head above water, we are forced to call off the fight in this case. 1932 Aug. 15, "The Press: Broken Mirror," Time (quoting farewell editorial in Detroit Mirror)
   • Near-synonym: tread water
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: maintain an above-water position of one's head so as not to drown in the water.
   • Near-synonym: tread water

Forms

Relateds

up to here · up to one's neck

Synonyms

tread water · tread water

Translations (15)

de sich über Wasser halten (survive) · is fleyta sér (survive) · nl het de baas kunnen (survive) · nl zijn hoofd boven water houden (survive) · pl utrzymać się na powierzchni (survive) · nl het overleven (survive) · cs držet se nad vodou (survive) · fr garder la tête hors de l'eau (survive) · nb holde hodet over vannet (survive) · cmn 勉強維持 /勉强维持 (survive) · da holde hovedet oven vande (survive) · nb ha hodet over vannet (survive) · pl utrzymywać się na powierzchni (survive) · fi pitää nenä pinnalla (survive) · sv hålla sig flytande (survive)