keep the home fires burning
To maintain a stable home life while someone is away
Browse all entries 1046
All languages English Tiếng Việt
keep the peace
Maintain harmony and avoid conflict
keep the pot boiling
To maintain a situation or activity at a steady level of interest or excitement
keep the rent down
to reduce or minimize expenses
keep the rent low
Maintain a low cost of living or expenses
keep the show on the road
to continue or maintain an activity or situation
keep the wolf from the door
To manage to survive financially
keep up
to maintain the same pace or level as something
keep up with the times
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
keep watch
To stay alert and monitor a situation
keep your chin up
Remain cheerful.
keep your friends close, and your enemies closer
One should be politic to the point of employing duplicity, lulling one's enemies into a false sense of collaboration.
keep your friends close, but your enemies closer
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
keep your mouth shut and your eyes open
Observe carefully and avoid speaking unnecessarily
keep your own counsel
Keep your thoughts or plans secret
keep your powder dry
Keep prepared for action; keep your courage up. The phrase comes from a story told of Oliver Cromwell. During his campaign in Ireland he concluded an address to his troops, who were about to cross a river before attacking, with the words — "Put your trust in God; but be sure to keep your powder dry.
Keep your powder dry (Valentine Blacker, 1834 from Oliver's Advice)
Be prepared for action, but wait for the right moment.
keeping cully
One who keeps a mistress, as he supposes, for his own use, but really for that of the public.
keeps wassail
Hamlet, i, 4. Formerly a salutation used specially at the New Year over the spiced ale cup, hence called the "wassail bowl" (A.S. Wees fuel, be whole, be well).
kelter
Money.
kelter
Condition, order. Out of kelter; out of order.
kelter
Coin, money. Probably from GELT.
kemp's morris
William Kemp, said to have been the original Dogberry in Much ado about Nothing, danced a morris from London to Norwich in nine days: of which he printed the account, A. D. 1600, intitled, Kemp's Nine Days Wonder, &c.
kemp's shoes
Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after you. BEN JONSON. Perhaps Kemp was a man remarkable for his good luck or fortune; throwing an old shoe, or shoes, after any one going on an important business, being by the vulgar deemed lucky.
ken
A house. A bob ken, or a bowman ken; a well-furnished house, also a house that harbours thieves. Biting the ken; robbing the house. CANT.
ken
A house.—Ancient cant. KHAN, Gipsy and Oriental.
kenana was put to death
Safiya outlived the prophet forty years. (8) Omm Habiba— i.e. mother of Habiba; the widow of Abu Sofian.
Kendal Green
Green cloth for foresters; so called from Kendal, Westmorland, famous at one time for this manufacture. Kendal green was the livery of Robin Hood and his followers. In Rymer's Fasdera (ii, 83) is a letter of pro- tection, dated 133 1, and granted by Edward III to John Kempe of Flanders, who established cloth-weaving in the borough. Lincoln was also famous at one time for dyeing green.
Kenilworth Castle
Kennil-worth means "the farm of Cynehild" (a woman). Richmond Castle (Yorks), belonging to the Saxon earl Edwin, given by the Conqueror to his nephew Alan, Earl of Bretagne; a ruin for three centuries. The keep remains.
kennedy
A poker; to "give KENNEDY" is to strike or kill with a poker. A St. Giles’s term, so given from a man of that name being killed by a poker.
Kensington Garden
A mock-heroic poem by Thomas Tickell (pub. 1722) peopling Kensing- ton Gardens, which a few years before had been laid out, with fairies. The gardens were the royal domain of Oberon, and the hero is Albion, son of ** Albion's royal blood," who was stolen thence by a fairy named Milkah.
kent
cunt.
kent rag
Or CLOUT, a cotton handkerchief.
kent-street ejectment
To take away the street door: a method practised by the landlords in Kent-street, Southwark, when their tenants are above a fortnight's rent in arrear.
Kentish Fire
Rapturous applause, or three times three and one more. The expression originated with the protracted cheers given in Kent to the No-Popery orators in 1828-29. Lord Winchilsea, who proposed the health of the Earl of Roden on August 15th, 1834, said: "Let it be given with the 'Kentish Fire.
kent’s
(E.) Modern Flash Dictionary, containing all the Cant words, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases now in Vogue, 18mo, coloured frontispiece. 1825.
Kepler's Laws
Astronomical laws first enunciated by Johann Kepler (1571-1630). They formed the basis of Newton's work, and are the starting-point of modern astronomy.
kerflooey
kaput
Kermit the Frog
Bog.
kernel of truth
A small amount of truth within a larger false statement
kerry security
Bond, pledge, oath, and keep the money.
kervorten
A Cockneyism for QUARTERN or quarter-pint measure. "KERVORTEN and three houts," a quartern of liquor and glasses, each holding a third of the quantity.
ketch
Jack Ketch; a general name for the finishers of the law, or hangmen, ever since the year 1682, when the office was filled by a famous practitioner of that name, of whom his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death, but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die sweetly.
ketch
Or JACK KETCH, the popular name for a public hangman; derived from a person of that name who officiated in the reign of Charles II.—See Macaulay’s History of England.
kettle of fish
A complicated or awkward situation
kettled
Drunk.
kettledrums
Cupid's kettle drums; a woman's breasts, called by sailors chest and bedding.
kew
(or more properly KEEU), a week.
kews
SKEW, or SKEEU, weeks.
Key and Bible
Formerly employed as a method of divination. The Bible is opened either at Ruth, ch. i, or at Psalm li, and a door- key is placed inside the Bible, so that the handle projects beyond the^book. The Bible is then tied with a piece of string and held by the fourth fingers of the accuser and defendant, who must repeat the words touched by the wards of the key.
key down
To lower in pitch, level, or intensity; to tone down.
key of the street
An imaginary instrument said to be possessed by any one locked out of doors.
keys to the kingdom
Complete control or authority over something
Khyber Pass
The arse.
kibosh
Nonsense, stuff, humbug; "it’s all KIBOSH," i.e., palaver or nonsense; to "put on the KIBOSH," to run down, slander, degrade, &c. To put the KIBOSH on anything is, latterly, to put an effectual end or stop to it.
kick
A moment; "I’ll be there in a KICK," i.e., in a moment.
kick a dog when it's down
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
kick against the pricks
To resist or fight against something that is inevitable or unstoppable
kick ass
to do something very well or successfully
kick ass and take names
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.