keep the home fires burning en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
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.
Meanings
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(colloquial, idiomatic) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
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 […]
2005, Karen Houppert, Home fires burning: married to the military, for better or worse, →ISBN, page xix: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.
1881, Andrew Jackson Davis, The genesis and ethics of conjugal love, page 115:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| kept the home fires burning | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| kept the home fires burning | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| keeps the home fires burning | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| keeping the home fires burning | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |