keep the wolf from the door

Meaning: (idiomatic)Toward offpovertyorhunger.They didn't earn much, but it was enough tokeep the wolf from the door.I'll grab a sandwich tokeep the wolf from the dooruntil dinner time.a.1609, “Plain Dealing Man”, in Robert Bell, editor,Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England‎[1], published1857:And my calling be simple and poor, / Yet will I endeavour myself / Tokeepoffthe wolf from the door.1645May 8 (Gregorian calendar),James Howell, “LX. To Tho. Young, Esq”, inEpistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren.[…], 3rd edition, volume I, London:[…]Humphrey Mos[e]ley,[…], published1655,→OCLC, section VI,page284:Indeed 'tis very fitting thatHeorSheſhould have wherewith to ſupport both, according to their quality, at leaſt tokeep the Wolf from the Door, otherwiſe 'twere a meer madneſs to Marry;[…]1897December 2, Joseph Smith, “The Fakir and the Milch Cow”, inLife, volume XXX, number780, New York, N.Y.: Life Publishing Company,→OCLC,page465, column 3:This pittance, with a rake-off on photographs and autographs, ought to enable the heroic Viking[Fridtjof Nansen]to meet his coal-bin unflinchingly andkeep the wolf from his doornext summer.1898, Eliot Gregory,Worldly Ways & Byways‎[2], Charles Scribner's Sons:No first night or ball was complete without him, Sagan. The very mention of his name in their articles must havekept the wolf from the doorof needy reporters.2003, “A Wolf at the Door”, inHail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead:Ikeep the wolf from the doorbut he calls me up / Calls me on the phone, tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up; (idiomatic,humorous,euphemistic)To delaysexualejaculation.1997,Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan,Armando Iannucci, “Alan Attraction”, inI'm Alan Partridge, spoken byAlan Partridge(Steve Coogan):Do you mind if I talk? It helps mekeep the wolf from the door, so to speak. Jill, what do you think of the pedestrianization of Norwich city centre?2002July 30, “the mekon”, “Wanking”, inuk.media.dvd‎[3](Usenet), message-ID <ai45tt$110mqu$2@ID-115312.news.dfncis.de>:I find it useful to look at a picture ofMo Mowlamat the change hands point, it helps to ‘keep the wolf from the door’ so to speak.2014December 1, “Carnal Calendar”, inMen's Health‎[4], South Africa, archived fromthe originalon8 March 2017:If you haven't got the self-control tokeep the wolf from the dooryourself, ask your partner to help out. She'll enjoy being the one in the driving seat for a change.

Examples:

EN: To keep the wolf from the door
ES: ♪ Para mantenerme a flote ♪
EN: I'll have to find a job to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Tengo que encontrar trabajo para mantener alejados a los lobos.
EN: These days it's hard to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: No es fácil mantener alejados a los lobos.
EN: Yes, well it does keep the wolf from the door, so to speak.
ES: Sí, así lo hace mantener el lobo de la puerta, por así decirlo.
EN: It'll keep the wolf from the door, but I'm gonna miss the big screen and the studio.
ES: Servirá para sobrevivir, pero voy a extrañar la pantalla grande y el estudio.
EN: I just do this to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Esto lo hago para pagar las facturas.
EN: It was a way to feed yourself, a way to feed your family to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Era una forma de alimentar a tu familia y a tí mismo, evitar la penuria.
EN: Until one day, when money was no longer enough to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Hasta que un día, el dinero ya no era suficiente para mantener al lobo detrás de la puerta.
EN: Your earnings don't exactly keep the wolf from the door, do they, John?
ES: Tus ganancias no mantienen la olla llena, ¿no es cierto, John?
EN: It'll keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Para que tengas con qué vivir.
EN: Ever since Alex went away, I have to work constantly just to keep the wolf from the door.
ES: Desde que Alex se fué, tengo que trabajar constantemente, sólo para mantener al lobo en la puerta.
EN: "To keep the wolf from the door, "she still sees a couple of regulars."
ES: Para tener algo seguro, aún sigue viendo a un par de habituales.
EN: Few quid to keep the wolf from the door?
ES: ¿Unas pocas libras para evitar la miseria?
EN: and give you children, and may they keep the wolf from the door.
ES: y os den hijos, y mantengan a los lobos alejados de vuestra puerta.
EN: I keep the wolf from the door
ES: Mantengo al lobo alejado de la puerta

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).