Chickens show social dominance in the form of pecking. Dominant chickens peck at the chickens who are below them in the pecking order. A "hen-pecked husband" means a husband who is dominated by his wife. "Keep themselves to themselves" means the opposite of "being outgoing." It means they keep quiet, keep inside their house, don't tell their neighbors much about themselves.

Here in America, a 'hen pecked' husband means that his wife is always criticizing/telling him what to do (pecking away at him). 'Keep to themselves'' means the neighbors do not talk to others, they only talk to each other. Thus it is hard to know anything about them. As Robert noted above, we would say keep to themselves, not themselves to themselves. Hope that helps.

Hi Jesús, Hen-pecked isn't a very common expression, but it's for a man who never confronts his wife. If we say the neighbors keep themselves to themselves, it would be grammatically incorrect, the right way to write it would be : Our neighbors keep to themselves. It means that they don't socialize with any of their neighbors.

Interesting!

Both of these phrases are common in the Southern part of the United States. There is a song by Blackberry Smoke called "Scare the Devil Outta You" and the first verse goes; "I got this self-tied noose around my neck I'm standing on the tracks just waiting for my own train wreck Keep yourself on your side and I'll keep me on mine Keep yourself to yourself and we'll get along just fine."