keep at arm's length, to

keep (one) at arm's length

To keep one a certain distance away, either physical or figurative, in order to afford a level of safety or security or to prevent intimacy. John always keeps his friends at arm's length, so that no one gets close enough to hurt his feelings. My daughter likes to watch me cook, but I make sure to keep her at arm's length so she doesn't get close to anything hot.

keep (someone or something) at arm's length

1. To maintain a protective level of detachment or dissociation from someone or something. John has been keeping us all at arm's length lately, so none of us knows how he is really doing. The senator was careful to keep the controversial topic at arm's length during his re-election campaign.

2. To prevent someone, something, or oneself from interacting, being involved, or becoming associated too closely with someone or something else. Typically followed by "from someone or something." The government has so far been keeping the country at arm's length from the hostilities in the region. My mother was very overprotective, and she always kept me at arm's length from anything or anyone she thought might be harmful.

keep at arm's length, to

To avoid familiarity, to keep someone at a distance. This expression, with its inevitable image of extending one’s arm to push someone away, has long been used figuratively to signify distancing oneself from a problem, group, political stand, and so forth. In the sixteenth century it was put as at arm’s end, as Sir Philip Sidney had it in Arcadia (1580), but by the mid-seventeenth century it began to appear as at arm’s length.