keep the pot boiling

keep the pot boiling (third-person singular simple present keeps the pot boiling, present participle keeping the pot boiling, simple past and past participle kept the pot boiling)

1. (idiomatic) To maintain one's livelihood; to continue to procure the necessities of living.
2. (idiomatic) To continue going on actively, as in certain games.
   • 1969, Terence Reese, Albert Dormer, How to play a better game of bridge, page 42:

     Of course, you intend to reach game eventually; on the next round you can keep the pot boiling with Three Diamonds.

   • 1982, David Sidney Parlett, The Penguin book of word games, page 55:

     These are in the nature of party games intended for fun rather than competition, though part of the fun may well consist in imposing forfeits on players who fail to keep the pot boiling.

• “boiling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.