keep the wolf from the door
keep the wolf from the door verb: to ward off poverty or hunger.
Verb
keep the wolf from the door (third-person singular simple present keeps the wolf from the door, present participle keeping the wolf from the door, simple past and past participle kept the wolf from the door)
- To ward off poverty or hunger.
- They didn't earn much, but it was enough to keep the wolf from the door.
- I'll grab a sandwich to keep the wolf from the door until dinner time.
- To delay sexual ejaculation.
- Do you mind if I talk? It helps me keep the wolf from the door, so to speak. Jill, what do you think of the pedestrianization of Norwich city centre?1997, Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, “Alan Attraction”, in I'm Alan Partridge, spoken by Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan)
- I find it useful to look at a picture of Mo Mowlam at the change hands point, it helps to ‘keep the wolf from the door’ so to speak.2002 July 30, “the mekon”, “Wanking”, in uk.media.dvd (Usenet), message-ID <ai45tt$110mqu$2@ID-115312.news.dfncis.de>
Examples of keep the wolf from the door in a sentence
- Indeed 'tis very fitting that He or She ſhould have wherewith to ſupport both, according to their quality, at leaſt to keep the Wolf from the Door, otherwiſe 'twere a meer madneſs to Marry; […]1645 May 7 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “LX. To Tho. Young, Esq”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […]...
- I keep the wolf from the door but he calls me up / Calls me on the phone, tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up2003, “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead:
- If you haven't got the self-control to keep the wolf from the door yourself, ask your partner to help out.2014 December 1, “Carnal Calendar”, in Men's Health, South Africa, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2017:
Forms of keep the wolf from the door
| third-person singular present | keeps the wolf from the door |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping the wolf from the door |
| past participle | kept the wolf from the door |
| past | kept the wolf from the door |
Origin of keep the wolf from the door
The original saying may have been keep the wolf from the gate, which dates from at least 1470. By the 1500s the saying had become keep the wolf from the door, with the current meaning that it bears: see, for example, the 1645 quotation. There is a suggestion that the phrase may have originated from French or German phrases. Compare the French manger comme un loup (“eat like a wolf”), and the German Wolfsmagen (literally “wolf’s stomach”) means “a keen appetite”.
Questions about keep the wolf from the door
- What does keep the wolf from the door mean?
- Keep the wolf from the door means to ward off poverty or hunger.
- How do you use keep the wolf from the door in a sentence?
- Indeed 'tis very fitting that He or She ſhould have wherewith to ſupport both, according to their quality, at leaſt to keep the Wolf from the Door, otherwiſe 'twere a meer madneſs to Marry; […]
- What part of speech is keep the wolf from the door?
- Keep the wolf from the door is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep the wolf from the door?
- The past tense of keep the wolf from the door is kept the wolf from the door.
Words near keep the wolf from the door in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep the wolf from the door (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-keep the wolf from the door.wav, En-au-keep the wolf from the door.ogg.
Cite this entry: “keep the wolf from the door.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_the_wolf_from_the_door. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.