keep one's head above water

短语

免遭灭顶之灾, 不负债

发音

AU

词形变化

keeping one's head above water keeps one's head above water 三单 keeps one's head above water kept one's head above water keeping one's head above water 现在分词 kept one's head above water 过去式 kept one's head above water 过去分词

别名

hold one's head above water keep one's head above the water

释义与例句

v.
  1. 1.

    To survive or endure, especially in a situation in which one is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by adverse financial circumstances.

    勉强维持

    习语

    Near-synonym: tread water

    I endeavoured to obtain a mitigation of this severe sentence, by offering myself to engage for the payment of the remaining sum, to preserve my mother's small salary unencumbered; but he interrupted me with the utmost cruelty, by saying . . . it would be pretty well if, for some years, I could keep my own head above water.

    Besides, I have had to borrow ten thousand dollars of him to keep my head above water.

    The capitalist system being one under which a profit must be made by any enterprise that is to keep its head above water, we are forced to call off the fight in this case.

  2. 2.

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: maintain an above-water position of one's head so as not to drown in the water.

    Near-synonym: tread water