keep open house

keep open house

To have one's house in a state or condition in which visitors or guests are welcome at any time. We keep open house, so please just drop by whenever you like. It really threw the neighborhood off-kilter the way the Millers kept open house, with people arriving and departing at all hours.
See also: house, keep, open
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

open house, keep

Provide hospitality for visitors, as in They loved company and kept open house virtually all summer long. This usage differs from the plain open house, which refers to a particular occasion or period when a home or institution is open to visitors or prospective buyers. [First half of 1500s]
See also: keep, open
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

keep open house

provide general hospitality.
1950 Elizabeth Goudge Gentian Hill All well-to-do Devon farmhouses keep open house on Christmas Eve.
See also: house, keep, open
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • open house, keep
  • welcome to our house
  • ask up
  • granny pod
  • granny flat
  • granny pad
  • all spruced up
  • spruce
  • tiny house
  • take out the trash
References in classic literature
He would keep open house and entertain like a prince.
Martin Eden
On this ground it was always contrived in the dark seasons, when there was little work to be done, and the hours were long, that several neighbours should keep open house in succession.
Silas Marner
Let me tell you I have store both of rugs and cloaks, and shall not permit the son of my old friend Ulysses to camp down on the deck of a ship--not while I live--nor yet will my sons after me, but they will keep open house as I have done."
Odyssey
'You're not going to keep open house for all the poor of London,' pursued Pancks.
Little Dorrit
"I desire that you shall keep open house; I desire that you should keep a liberal table; I desire that my captain of musketeers should be a personage."
Ten Years Later
A I GATHER that while you may keep open house for the sons who are on drugs, they don't live with you full-time.
Druggie sons are making my life hell; JOAN'S SOLUTION
Mam Mary would cook three times each evening, wash 30 sets of running gear every week, and keep open house to all the athletes in the area providing them with meals when they required them.
Edinburgh gold was great for a 'Scot'
Church secretary Catarina Lendi works there part-time, and the Jonssons keep open house on Thursday afternoons.
Ministry on the move. (Expat Profile)
Rossdale said: "I keep open house and provide a lot of financial help for my friends, as Bob Marley did.
DOUGH-OH-SEVEN; Sean and rocker Gavin top rich list