not touch with a ten-foot pole

Idioms  

1. Stay far away from, avoid completely, as in Ronald wouldn't touch raw oysters with a ten-foot pole. This expression dates from the mid-1700s, when it began to replace the earlier not to be handled with a pair of tongs. In the 1800s barge-pole was sometimes substituted for ten-foot pole, but that variant has died out.

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Example Sentences

Well," said the Virginian, "if that is so, then Providence makes use of instruments I'd not touch with a ten-foot pole.

From Project Gutenberg