at arm's length

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

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“Often the director is kept at arm’s length from the producing. My North Star is Hal Prince. The way he thought about his work, not just from a director’s point of view but also from a producer’s point of view, really interested Dane and me. We want to be able to support work that we want New York to see.”

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The news media and public were kept at arm’s length, as were many members of the Cabinet and Congress, which led to a “uniquely small and loyal inner circle.”

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It also lends legitimacy to a leader whose past as an Al Qaeda-affiliated jihadi leader — Al-Sharaa severed ties with the group in 2016 — had made Western nations keep him at arm’s length.

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Norris ate into Piastri's lead through the second half of the race but the Australian kept him at arm's length.

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Emotionally, Sukhitashvili remains at arm’s length, her character’s actions inscrutable.

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ataraxia Atascadero

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