English
Adverb
at bay
- idiom unable to come closer; at a distance
#: The citronella candles held the bugs at bay, a blessed thing that evening.
- rfv-sense|example contradicts a separate sense, anyhow idiom cornered; unable to flee
#: We held the would-be kidnapper at bay until the police arrived.
Quotations
1886, w:Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S. Grant, s:Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant|Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, chapter XXIX,
:In that case the enemy himself could have occupied the defences of Corinth and held at bay all the Union troops that arrived.
1889, w:Lewis Carroll|Lewis Carroll, s:Sylvie and Bruno|Sylvie and Bruno, preface,
:These two books of sacred, and secular, passages for memory--will serve other good purposes besides merely occupying vacant hours: they will help to keep at bay many anxious thoughts, worrying thoughts, uncharitable thoughts, unholy thoughts.
1918, w:Edgar Rice Burroughs|Edgar Rice Burroughs, s:The Land That Time Forgot|The Land That Time Forgot, chapter X,
:For a moment my gaze traversed the landscape beneath until it was caught and held by four figures near the base of the cliff--a human figure held at bay by three hyaenodons, those ferocious and blood-thirsty wild dogs of the Eocene.
2004 November 22, Valerie Elliott, �Two-dog plan to keep law at bay�, in w:The Times|The Times,
:Instead of mounted riders following a pack of hounds, it is envisaged that just two dogs will be used to locate a stag and hold it at bay.
Synonyms
sense|at a distance at a distance, at arm's length, away, back
sense|cornered cornered, trapped
|
