"arm's length" meaning in English

See arm's length in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-arm's length.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} arm's length (not comparable)
  1. (literally) Barely within reach. Tags: literally, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-adj-8FwnqYzX
  2. (idiomatic) Distant, detached. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-adj-7-3KXil8
  3. (idiomatic) Independent, but related. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable Related terms: armlength
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-adj-XW34Uzw2

Noun

Audio: en-au-arm's length.ogg [Australia] Forms: arm's lengths [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} arm's length (plural arm's lengths)
  1. A distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm. Derived forms: arm's length price, arm's length principle Translations (distance): käsivarren mitta (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-noun-~dv1ItBG Disambiguation of 'distance': 92 4 4
  2. (figuratively) A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy. Tags: figuratively Translations (figuratively: position not suggesting or inviting intimacy): etäisyys (pitää etäisyyttä - to remain at arm's length) (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-noun-rvBGKMHt Disambiguation of 'figuratively: position not suggesting or inviting intimacy': 1 98 2
  3. (figuratively) A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction. Tags: figuratively Translations (figuratively: condition of independence and parity): erillisyys (Finnish), erillinen asema (Finnish), erillään (english: at arm's length) (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-arm's_length-en-noun-D~mpDRs7 Disambiguation of 'figuratively: condition of independence and parity': 3 6 91

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for arm's length meaning in English (4.6kB)

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      "form": "arm's lengths",
      "tags": [
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          "_dis1": "89 4 7",
          "word": "arm's length price"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "89 4 7",
          "word": "arm's length principle"
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      ],
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        "A distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm."
      ],
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        {
          "_dis1": "92 4 4",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "distance",
          "word": "käsivarren mitta"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She remained at arm's length though we worked together for many years.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy."
      ],
      "id": "en-arm's_length-en-noun-rvBGKMHt",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 98 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "figuratively: position not suggesting or inviting intimacy",
          "word": "etäisyys (pitää etäisyyttä - to remain at arm's length)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The police work at arm's length from the army.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 April 22, “Labour's blueprint for the future of Britain's railways”, in Rail, page 28",
          "text": "\"Government should have an arms-length relationship with the railway,\" it adds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 3, Christian Wolmar, “Unworkable policies cripple our beleagered railway”, in Rail, page 51",
          "text": "In any viable scenario of renationalisation, the idea was always to ensure that the railways were at arm's length from the Department, since it was recognised that allowing civil servants to run the show is always a bad idea.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
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        "A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction."
      ],
      "id": "en-arm's_length-en-noun-D~mpDRs7",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
          "word": "erillisyys"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
          "word": "erillinen asema"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "at arm's length",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
          "word": "erillään"
        }
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      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Barely within reach."
      ],
      "id": "en-arm's_length-en-adj-8FwnqYzX",
      "links": [
        [
          "reach",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) Barely within reach."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Distant, detached."
      ],
      "id": "en-arm's_length-en-adj-7-3KXil8",
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          "distant"
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        "(idiomatic) Distant, detached."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
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    },
    {
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        {
          "ref": "2021 February 24, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Vaccines and railways”, in RAIL, number 925, page 3",
          "text": "Kate Bingham's success is powerful validation of what has been RAIL 's opinion on this key question for many months now: that we must have a new arm's length body, similar to the Vaccine Task Force, to strategically plan and organise our railways... and quickly too.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Independent, but related."
      ],
      "id": "en-arm's_length-en-adj-XW34Uzw2",
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        ],
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        "(idiomatic) Independent, but related."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 20 80",
          "word": "armlength"
        }
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      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
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  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "arm's length price"
    },
    {
      "word": "arm's length principle"
    }
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A distance approximately equal to the length of a human's arm."
      ]
    },
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She remained at arm's length though we worked together for many years.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A position not suggesting or inviting intimacy."
      ],
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        "figuratively"
      ]
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        "English terms with usage examples"
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        },
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          "text": "\"Government should have an arms-length relationship with the railway,\" it adds.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 3, Christian Wolmar, “Unworkable policies cripple our beleagered railway”, in Rail, page 51",
          "text": "In any viable scenario of renationalisation, the idea was always to ensure that the railways were at arm's length from the Department, since it was recognised that allowing civil servants to run the show is always a bad idea.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction."
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        "(figuratively) A condition of independence and parity for parties to a transaction."
      ],
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        "figuratively"
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "distance",
      "word": "käsivarren mitta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "figuratively: position not suggesting or inviting intimacy",
      "word": "etäisyys (pitää etäisyyttä - to remain at arm's length)"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
      "word": "erillisyys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
      "word": "erillinen asema"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "at arm's length",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "figuratively: condition of independence and parity",
      "word": "erillään"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "arm's length"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "glosses": [
        "Barely within reach."
      ],
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        "(literally) Barely within reach."
      ],
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        "not-comparable"
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      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
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        "Distant, detached."
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        "(idiomatic) Distant, detached."
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          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        "Independent, but related."
      ],
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          "related"
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        "(idiomatic) Independent, but related."
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.