ARM'S LENGTH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 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 

• ARM'S LENGTH (noun)

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...):

distance; length (size of the gap between two places)

 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)