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at arm's length
Idioms and Phrases
At a distance, avoiding intimacy or familiarity, as in Bill hated seeing his colleagues outside the office, preferring to keep all of them at arm's length , or She was friendly only when he was safely at arm's length . Now often used with the verb keep , this term for distancing oneself from a person, organization, or issue originated as at arm's end but developed its current form by the mid-1600s.Example Sentences
He also defended the idea of quangos – the term used to describe publicly funded organisations at arm's length from the government.
The company was not set up in Sheen's name and he had to be at "arm's length from it".
“It’s better to stay alone or at arm’s length,” he told The Times in 1994.
It makes them increasingly difficult to keep at arm's length.
"Backing what we do," captain Doris said when asked what Ireland did to keep Scotland at arm's length.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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