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 acquisition is therefore seen as having been conducted at arm’s length, with no evidence of direct dealings with the former promoters, he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

You can keep her at arm’s length and not make these kinds of offers again.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Itauma is more like Joshua - guarded and keeping the media at arm's length.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

AMERICA’S distinctive advantage was always the liberal side of the rule of law: specifically, the types of rules that secure private property, punish anticompetitive conduct and hold the state at arm’s length from the firm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Then came the carving of the quarters, and they spitted morsels of lean meat on the long sharp tines and broiled them at arm’s length upon the fire.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer