Meaning
To manage to survive or keep coping, especially when money, time, or energy is only just sufficient. It implies struggling at the very limit of your resources rather than thriving, and it is used of households, businesses, and anyone barely managing their workload. Neutral register; nowadays most often heard about finances or workload, with a note of ongoing strain. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The image is of a person in deep water who survives only by keeping mouth and nose clear of the surface; troubles are pictured as waters that could swallow you, so the metaphor needs no elaborate origin story. The earliest citation in Wiktionary is spiritual rather than financial: Edward Marbury's 1650 commentary on Habakkuk thanks God for comfort that keeps the head above water so that deep waters do not swallow the soul, showing the phrase was already figurative by the mid-17th century. Later dated quotations show the financial sense well established by the 1860s, as in Edmund Kirke's 'My Southern Friends' (1863), where a speaker borrows money simply to stay afloat. Christine Ammer's related entry dates the companion idiom about staying calm, 'keep one's head', to the early 1600s, which fits the same era of head-as-reason imagery.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- get your head above water
- hold your head above water
- keep one's head above water
- keep your head above the water
Usage Examples
- Since the factory closed, the family has kept its head above water by taking in lodgers.
- Small shops are struggling to keep their heads above water while rents keep rising.
- I had taken on extra shifts just to keep my head above water that winter.