head above water, keep one's

Stay out of trouble, especially financial difficulties; also, keep up with work or other demands. For example, With new bills coming in every day they're barely keeping their heads above water, or The work's piling up, but I manage to keep my head above water. This expression alludes to keeping oneself from drowning. [Early 1700s] Also see in deep.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ackers	['ækəz]
Erebus	-	Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Rudolf	ROO-dawlf (German), RUW-dawlf (Polish)	German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, Russian, Arm
Kirkland	['kɜ:klənd]
Petteri	PET-te-ree	Finnish
Fernanda	fer-NAHN-dah (Spanish)	Spanish, Portuguese, Italian