keep the home fires burning
To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or communityTo maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
» I was the one who stayed up all night to keep the fire burning.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(colloquial, idiomatic)To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
Examples
14 sentencesI was the one who stayed up all night to keep the fire burning.
Please keep the fire burning.
We kept the fire burning.
Tom has volunteered to stay up all night and keep the fire burning.
My eyes keep burning.
Origin
A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often whileA reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
keeps the home fires burning, keeping the home fires burning, kept the home fires burning, kept the home fires burning| Base form | keep the home fires burning · to keep the home fires burning |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | keeps the home fires burning |
| Present participle | keeping the home fires burning |
| Past simple | kept the home fires burning |
| Past participle | kept the home fires burning |
irregular · Lesson
Present simpleLesson
| I, you, we, they | keep the home fires burning |
| he, she, it | keeps the home fires burning |
Past simpleLesson
| all persons | kept the home fires burning |
Present perfectLesson
| I, you, we, they | have kept the home fires burning |
| he, she, it | has kept the home fires burning |
Future simple (will)Lesson
| all persons | will keep the home fires burning |
Lessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, irregular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.