hold at arm's length

hold/keep somebody at arm's length

to not allow someone to become too friendly with you I always had the feeling she was keeping me at arm's length.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Briallen	bree-AHSH-en	Welsh
Juliya	YOO-lee-yah (Russian)	Russian, Ukrainian
Abd Al-Qadir	-	Arabic
Ayelet	-	Hebrew
Erazem	-	Slovene
Hjalmar	YAHL-mahr (Swedish)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish