keep one's head above water
keep one's head above water verb: to survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.
Verb
keep one's head above water (third-person singular simple present keeps one's head above water, present participle keeping one's head above water, simple past and past participle kept one's head above water)
- To survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.
- Near-synonym: tread water
- 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
- Synonyms:
- tread water
- 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
- Synonyms:
- tread water
Synonyms of keep one's head above water
Forms of keep one's head above water
| third-person singular present | keeps one's head above water |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping one's head above water |
| past participle | kept one's head above water |
| past | kept one's head above water |
| alternative form | hold one's head above water |
| alternative form | keep one's head above the water |
Questions about keep one's head above water
- What does keep one's head above water mean?
- Keep one's head above water means to survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.
- What part of speech is keep one's head above water?
- Keep one's head above water is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep one's head above water?
- The past tense of keep one's head above water is kept one's head above water.
Words near keep one's head above water in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's head above water (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-keep one's head above water.ogg.
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