keep the wolf from the door

English

Etymology

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”.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

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)

1. (idiomatic) 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.

   • a. 1609, “Plain Dealing Man”, in Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England‎^[1], published 1857:

     And my calling be simple and poor, / Yet will I endeavour myself / To keep off the wolf from the door.

   • 1645 May 8 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “LX. To Tho. Young, Esq”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section VI, page 284:

     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; […]

   • 1897 December 2, Joseph Smith, “The Fakir and the Milch Cow”, in Life, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 465, column 3:

     This pittance, with a rake-off on photographs and autographs, ought to enable the heroic Viking [Fridtjof Nansen] to meet his coal-bin unflinchingly and keep the wolf from his door next summer.

   • 1898, Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways & Byways‎^[2], Charles Scribner's Sons:

     No first night or ball was complete without him, Sagan. The very mention of his name in their articles must have kept the wolf from the door of needy reporters.

   • 2003, “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead:

     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 up

2. (idiomatic, humorous, euphemistic) To delay sexual ejaculation.
   • 1997, Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, “Alan Attraction”, in I'm Alan Partridge, spoken by Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan):

     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?

   • 2002 July 30, “the mekon”, “Wanking”, in uk.media.dvd‎^[3] (Usenet), message-ID <ai45tt$110mqu$2@ID-115312.news.dfncis.de>:

     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.

   • 2014 December 1, “Carnal Calendar”, in Men's Health‎^[4], South Africa, archived from the original on 8 March 2017:

     If you haven't got the self-control to keep the wolf from the door yourself, ask your partner to help out. She'll enjoy being the one in the driving seat for a change.

Translations

to ward off poverty

• French: être à l’abri du besoin
• Italian: rimanere a galla, tirare avanti, barcamenarsi (it), cavarsela (it), farcela (it), scamparla, sbarcare il lunario

to ward off hunger

• Latin: famem a foribus pellere

See also

• keep the home fires burning
• the wolf is at the door