# keep the wolf from the door

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/keep-the-wolf-from-the-door
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To ward off poverty or hunger.

## Examples

- He works two jobs just to keep the wolf from the door.
- During the difficult economic crisis, her small salary was barely enough to keep the wolf from the door.
- Despite the meager wages earned from his seasonal labor, he managed to keep the wolf from the door throughout the long, unforgiving winter.

## Origin

The expression is recorded as early as 1470, though the original phrasing appears to have been to keep the wolf from the gate. By the 1500s, the wolf had evidently moved closer, and the idiom shifted to its modern form of keeping the wolf from the door. A quotation from 1645 indicates the phrase had by then settled into its current sense of maintaining a basic level of subsistence to avoid starvation. The origin is disputed, with some scholars suggesting the phrase may be a loan from French or German constructions. The French *manger comme un loup*, or to eat like a wolf, and the German *Wolfsmagen*, literally meaning a wolf’s stomach and denoting a keen appetite, are cited as possible linguistic ancestors. The wolf serves as a convenient, if somewhat dramatic, stand-in for the hunger that arrives when one’s resources are exhausted. (disputed)

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.