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at bay

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Idioms and Phrases

Cornered, in distress, as in Angry bystanders chased the thief into an alley and held him at bay until the police arrived . This idiom originally came from hunting, where it describes an animal that has been driven back and now faces pursuing hounds. Its use for other situations dates from the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

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Chris now eats four peanuts every morning with his breakfast granola to keep his allergy at bay – as recommended by his doctors.

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Jackson has resources, high walls and a defense apparatus keeping the Cordyceps-infected hordes at bay.

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Mr Davies said a property was warned on Monday evening to pack their belongings for possible evacuation, but the fire crew were able to keep the Cwm Rheidol blaze at bay.

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"They held the chaos at bay as long as possible, and all of that was kind of symbolised by this open steam valve just sitting there on the stern."

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��’s keeping patrons at bay, he said, is crime and the news reports that follow.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

at bat at best

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