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.See also: keep

单词	keep at arm's length, to
释义	keep at arm's length, to 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.See also: keep
随便看	imperial weights and measures imperial wizard imperial yeomanry imperial zebra pleco imperiex imperil imperiled imperiling imperilled imperilling imperilment imperils imperious imperiously imperiousness imperishability imperishable imperishableness imperishably imperishingness imperium imperium maius imperium romanum imperiwigged impermanence