keep the wolf from the door

短语

把狼拒之于门外;免于饥饿,勉强煳口

发音

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AU

词形变化

keeping the wolf from the door keeps the wolf from the door 三单 keeps the wolf from the door kept the wolf from the door keeping the wolf from the door 现在分词 kept the wolf from the door 过去式 kept the wolf from the door 过去分词

释义与例句

v.
  1. 1.

    To ward off poverty or hunger.

    习语

    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.

  2. 2.

    To delay sexual ejaculation.

    委婉 幽默 习语

词源

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”.

来源：wiktionary