at arm's length

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

at arm's length

The tensions of keeping the industry of Hollywood at arm’s length while warmly embracing all the contradictions of the city of Los Angeles have long animated him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Japan had kept Brazil at arm's length in their last-32 tie, got themselves in front, and looked quite comfortable.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

The Moon will appear to the astronauts "about the size of a basketball held at arm's length," Noah Petro, head of NASA's planetary geology lab, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Apr. 5, 2026

“Western Star” is thus the rare authorized biography that keeps its subject at arm’s length.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

They kept at arm’s length the multimedia that Terryl feared would foil their engagement with one another, their studies, the real world.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel