keep the wolf from the door

present singular third person keeps the wolf from the door · participle present keeping the wolf from the door · participle past kept the wolf from the door · past kept the wolf from the door

1. idiomaticTo ward off poverty or hunger.

   I'll grab a sandwich to keep the wolf from the door until dinner time.

   5 more examples

   They didn't earn much, but it was enough to keep the wolf from the door.

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

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

   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. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section VI, page 284

   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.

   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

   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.

   1898, Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways & Byways, Charles Scribner's Sons

2. euphemistichumorousidiomaticTo delay sexual ejaculation.

   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>

   2 more examples

   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)

   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.

   2014 December 1, “Carnal Calendar”, in Men's Health, South Africa, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2017