Meanings
present singular third person keeps the home fires burning · participle present keeping the home fires burning · participle past kept the home fires burning · past kept the home fires burning
- colloquialidiomaticTo maintain daily routine and provide the necessities of life in a home or community.
While the military has moved to gender-neutral language in all its official descriptions of the "spouses" who keep the home fires burning during deployments […]
2005, Karen Houppert, Home fires burning: married to the military, for better or worse, →ISBN, page xix1 more example
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
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
A reference to keeping campfires, lights, etc. at one's home village burning, often while part of the population travels elsewhere to hunt, etc.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
keep the home fires burning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keep%20the%20home%20fires%20burning
“keep the home fires burning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keep%20the%20home%20fires%20burning. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “keep the home fires burning,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keep%20the%20home%20fires%20burning.
Source: keep the home fires burning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.