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

Other sports leagues have kept prediction markets at arms length.

From Barron's • Oct. 22, 2025

Social media might encourage close-ups, but for the Japanese royal family they're content to remain at arms length.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2024

Others have held it at arms length, treating it as an instance of the paranoid style in American politics.

From New York Times • May 27, 2022

Wyatt Wilkes, who came in averaging less than four points a game, hit a pair of 3-pointers in the half to keep Clemson at arms length.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 29, 2020

She held me at arms length, her eyes serious.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago