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at bay
Idioms and Phrases
Cornered, in distress, as in Angry bystanders chased the thief into an alley and held him at bay until the police arrived . This idiom originally came from hunting, where it describes an animal that has been driven back and now faces pursuing hounds. Its use for other situations dates from the late 1500s.Example Sentences
What’s keeping patrons at bay, he said, is crime and the news reports that follow.
Europe is now loudly and publicly discussing spending a lot more on its own defence - hoping to keep Donald Trump onside and an aggressive Russia at bay after Ukraine.
Norris was struggling with fading brakes in the closing laps but had enough of an advantage to hold Russell at bay.
At the other end, the Italian's opposite number Alisson produced the "performance of his career" as he single-handedly kept the French side at bay in Paris.
Comeback stories have been heralded and our AI robot overlords have been held at bay — for now.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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