kept me in lunch money

English translation: earn a modest income

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:keep in lunch money
Selected answer:earn a modest income
Entered by: Andrew Vdovin

05:05 Oct 28, 2015
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
English term or phrase: kept me in lunch money
I’ve been in the hero business for quite some time... it has kept me in lunch money. But I will say, for all its perks... more often than not... heroes eat alone.

It's a part of the "speech" of a hero from a video game.
What is this phase supposed to mean?
Andrew Vdovin
Local time: 20:53
earned me a modest income
Explanation:
'to keep you in...' means 'to provide enough money to pay for your...' — so lunch money means it was a nice little income — but not what you'd call really big earnings (such as you might expect of a 'hero'!)
Selected response from:

Tony M
France
Local time: 14:53
Grading comment
Thanks everybody!!!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +8earned me a modest income
Tony M
4kept my life easy
acetran
Summary of reference entries provided
useful link?
Shera Lyn Parpia

  

Answers


24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
kept my life easy


Explanation:
Lunch money is a phrase that is used for something that is easy.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lunch money

acetran
Native speaker of: Native in HindiHindi, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Tony M: That's not really the exact meaning of the idiom when used like this.
2 hrs

neutral  AllegroTrans: this is about money not lifestyle, even if lifestyle is implied
3 hrs
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +8
earned me a modest income


Explanation:
'to keep you in...' means 'to provide enough money to pay for your...' — so lunch money means it was a nice little income — but not what you'd call really big earnings (such as you might expect of a 'hero'!)

Tony M
France
Local time: 14:53
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 44
Grading comment
Thanks everybody!!!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  sam@fr-uk
17 mins
  -> Thanks, Sam!

agree  Yvonne Gallagher
19 mins
  -> Thanks, G!

agree  AllegroTrans
1 hr
  -> Thanks, C!

agree  Terry Richards: Yes, but it could be ironic here.
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Terry! True... but no real clues either way in the s/t as given.

agree  Arabic & More
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Amel!

agree  Shera Lyn Parpia
6 hrs
  -> Thanks, Shera!

agree  Michael Barnett
7 hrs
  -> Thanks, Michael!

agree  Cilian O'Tuama: Nice way of putting it
16 hrs
  -> Thanks, Cilian!
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Reference comments


2 hrs peer agreement (net): +1
Reference: useful link?

Reference information:
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-keep-somebody-in-b...

Shera Lyn Parpia
Italy
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  Tony M
18 mins
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