to keep the wolf from the door
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
mantener a raya la pobreza
- Michael is gone, Kim is keen to publish Cerebus, Dave wants to have Cerebus published and keep the wolf from the door, and a lot of fans, old and new, are itching to buy the best possible editions of these books.
Examples
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Keep the wolf from the door.
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Not out of ignorance, but to keep the wolves from the door while solutions are configured.
Blog text (33) -
Yes, well, it does keep the wolf from the door, so to speak.
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Keep the wolf from the door Ms. Slighcarp.
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JC Mosquito spends most of his day keeping the wolves from the door.
Blog text (27) -
"We must make sacrifices, tighten our belts, keep the wolf from the door, cut out the cancer, batten down the hatches, stabilize the GNP, seek out the traitors in our midst.
Fiction book (1998) -
Many families struggle just to keep the wolf from the door during tough economic times.
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He takes on extra shifts at work to keep the wolf from the door and provide for his family.
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Despite the challenges, she finds ways to keep the wolf from the door each month.
Synonyms
56
3.5
To live on a small amount of money
38
2.8
To earn enough money to support yourself or your family
Antonyms
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
keep + the + wolf + from + the + door
While 'keep' and 'from' signal prevention, the imagery of a 'wolf' at the 'door' is a cultural metaphor for hunger or destitution rather than a literal composition. A B1 learner who knows the individual words is unlikely to infer the specific meaning 'avoid poverty or hunger' without prior exposure, so the phrase is idiomatic and unpredictable from its parts.
Etymology
The idiom keep the wolf from the door may come from the image of a hungry wolf at the door of a poor home, trying to get in and take the family's food. So, to keep the wolf from the door means 'to avoid hunger or being very poor' by having just enough to survive.