keep one's head above water

present singular third person keeps one's head above water · participle present keeping one's head above water · participle past kept one's head above water · past kept one's head above water · alternative hold one's head above water · alternative keep one's head above the water

1. idiomaticTo survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.

   Near-synonym: tread water

   5 more examples

   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

   I endeavoured to obtain a mitigation of this severe sentence, by offering myself to engage for the payment of the remaining sum, to preserve my mother's small salary unencumbered; but he interrupted me with the utmost cruelty, by saying . . . it would be pretty well if, for some years, I could keep my own head above water.

   1764, M. C., A Lady of Quality, Each Sex in their Humour or, The Histories of the Families of Brightley, Finch, Fortescue, Shelburne and Stevens, London, p. 20

   Besides, I have had to borrow ten thousand dollars of him to keep my head above water.

   1863, James Robert Gilmore (writing as Edmund Kirke), My Southern Friends, Tribune Assoc., ch. 17 http://books.google.ca/books?id=dYP7DDTj3s0C&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=%22dollars+of+him+to+keep+my+head+above+water%22&source=bl&ots=Oqhuty7vkS&sig=u9DiSN48lXn9IAiNsSMVmSUZdbk&hl=en&ei=OrXcStrdGIzFlAeQoPyhAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22dollars%20of%20him%20to%20keep%20my%20head%20above%20water%22&f=false

   The capitalist system being one under which a profit must be made by any enterprise that is to keep its head above water, we are forced to call off the fight in this case.

   1932 Aug. 15, "The Press: Broken Mirror," Time (quoting farewell editorial in Detroit Mirror)

   Strong sales in Europe and Asia are helping Tiffany keep its head above water at a time when US consumers are holding onto their wallets.

   2008 March 24, Ruthie Ackerman, “Tiffany Goes International”, in Forbes, retrieved 19 Oct 2009

   Synonyms: tread water

2. 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