Keep Someone At Arm's Length

Welcome to English in a minute.

We all know it’s important to have good friends in your life. But this phrase doesn’t seem to encourage friendship.

Have you met the new guy, Crisp?

I have. And I’m going to keep him at arm’s length.

What?why? I mean, what do you have against crisp?

Jonathan, it’s for my own protection. I’ve known a lot of Crisps in my life and they’ve all broken my heart.

You’ve met other Crisps?

If you “ keep someone at arm’s length,” you keep a distance between you and that person… like the length of an arm!

It can be an actual physical distance or an emotional distance … like Anna has with guys named Crisp.

And that’s English in a minute.