English Dictionary |
ARM'S LENGTH
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Dictionary entry overview: What does arm's length mean?
• ARM'S LENGTH (noun)
The noun ARM'S LENGTH has 1 sense:
1. a distance sufficient to exclude intimacy
Familiarity information: ARM'S LENGTH used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A distance sufficient to exclude intimacy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("arm's length" is a kind of...):
Context examples
But the pot was beyond arm's length and beside Henry.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Nonsense! You mean to go tomorrow, I suppose? he said, holding me out at arm's length, with a hand on each of my shoulders.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Here he held Martin off at arm's length and ran his beaming eyes over Martin's second-best suit, which was also his worst suit, and which was ragged and past repair, though the trousers showed the careful crease he had put in with Maria's flat-irons.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
At times we could not see an arm's length before us; but at others, as the hollow-sounding wind swept by us, it seemed to clear the air-space around us so that we could see afar off.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I picked it up with a weary bend and handed it back to her, holding it at arm's length and by the extreme tip of the corners to indicate that I had no designs upon it—but every one near by, including the woman, suspected me just the same.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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"There are many good moccasin tracks along the trail of a straight arrow." (Native American proverb, Sioux)
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