keep the wolf from the door
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.26 in modern English
46
Scrabble Score
22
Letters
4
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "And my calling be simple and poor, / Yet will I endeavour myself / To keep off the wolf from the door."
- "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; […]"
- "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."
- "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."
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”.