Verb
keep the lights on (third-person singular simple present keeps the lights on, present participle keeping the lights on, simple past and past participle kept the lights on)
To maintain operating expenses for a business.
In all honesty, at that time, I never saw myself as an author... I was just a Mom in a state of panic, trying to enter a short story contest to win the prize money in order to keep the lights on in my home. Leslie Banks
Wouldn't it be nice if all the people who are lonesome could live in one big dormitory, sleep in beds next to each other, talk, laugh, and keep the lights on as long as they want to? Lenny Bruce