Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping the home fires burning

keeping the home fires burning is the present participle and gerund of keep the home fires burning.

Meaning of keep the home fires burning

Verb

keep the home fires burning (third-person singular simple present keeps the home fires burning, present participle keeping the home fires burning, simple past and past participle kept the home fires burning)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
    • 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

Questions about keeping the home fires burning

What is keeping the home fires burning the present participle and gerund of?
Keeping the home fires burning is the present participle and gerund of keep the home fires burning.

Words near keeping the home fires burning in the dictionary

  1. keeping the baby
  2. keeping the ball rolling
  3. keeping the book
  4. keeping the field
  5. keeping the flag flying
  6. keeping the home fires burning
  7. keeping the lights on
  8. keeping the pace
  9. keeping the peace
  10. keeping the pot boiling
  11. keeping the powder dry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping the home fires burning (page history and authors); keep the home fires burning (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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