keep the home fires burning


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keep the home fires burning

To maintain one's home, especially while one's spouse or other housemates are away. My grandmother often talks about how she kept the home fires burning while Grandpa was away at war.
See also: burning, fire, home, keep
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

keep the home fires burning

Fig. to keep things going at one's home or other central location. (From a World War I song.) My uncle kept the home fires burning when my sister and I went to school. The manager stays at the office and keeps the home fires burning while I'm out selling our products.
See also: burning, fire, home, keep
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
That publication was titled "Home Fires," after the popular song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning." I have several copies of that issue of Life, which cost more than a year's subscription at the time.
Graciously, the band was only too happy to oblige and enjoyed motoring through the likes of Solomon Bites The Worm, Keep The Home Fires Burning and If.
Solihull School's Oh What A Lovely War featured sketches, stories and celebrated songs including Keep The Home Fires Burning and It's A Long Way to Tipperary.
Which is why Prime Minister Gordon Brown today chooses The People to send his own Christmas message to those battling abroad, and their families who keep the home fires burning.
This includes giving special attention to our families and friends, for they keep the home fires burning while we are gone.
They didn't know what their tomorrows would bring, but through it all they really did keep the home fires burning.
Earlier in the 20th century, "home defense" was considered an aspect of "feminine patriotism." Previous wars not only gave women specific roles, such as within the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, but called upon them explicitly to defend the home front and keep the home fires burning. While women have now moved into more substantive positions in America's military--as soldiers, support staff, and doctors--at home they've been left to fend for themselves.
Accompanied by harpist Elinor Bennett and Les Morrison on the banjo, she sang Ivor Novello's Keep The Home Fires Burning, Calon Lan and folk song Bachgan Bach O Dincer.
As he puts it, "I couldn't have had a successful career without a strong family to keep the home fires burning while I was away."
He gave Vivien Leigh her stage name, wrote the patriotic song "Keep the Home Fires Burning," and spent the '30s and '40s composing lush, romantic musicals--Glamorous Night (1935), Perchance to Dream (1945)--becoming the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his time.
SCOTLAND can keep the home fires burning with victory over Spain in today's Dunhill Cup Group Two decider at St Andrews.
You keep it up, and we'll keep the home fires burning.
But he also projects that future market growth will be due to newly weight-conscious men, commenting - "Now that there is no more little wife stolidly waiting at home, men have begun to feel they must be as fit as their spouse, in order to keep the home fires burning.
He regularly appears on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio London and recently on the BBC Radio 2 documentary Keep The Home Fires Burning, presented by Don Black.
The choir will be singing from its extensive repertoire - with many pieces getting a first outing at the annual concert - with a specially arranged medley including Pack Up Your Troubles, It's A Long Way To Tipperary and Keep The Home Fires Burning to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.