From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishkeep your distancekeep your distancea) to stay far enough away from someone or something to be safe A lighthouse on the cliff warns ships to keep their distance. b) (also keep somebody at a distance) to avoid becoming too friendly with someone The neighbours tend to keep their distance. → distance
Examples from the Corpus
keep your distance• Sometimes Fate tiptoes discreetly at the margins of our lives, averting her eyes and keeping her distance.• I saw him later, standing at a meeting of walls, a shy girl keeping her distance.• It is easy to see it now in the way labor has kept its distance from the plant-closing movement.• Over the years I have kept my distance from the white women's movement.• Ruth kept her distance from him but she could do nothing about the wretched aura that surrounded him.• Burgess says such activities increase the danger that sharks will lose the respect for humans that mostly makes them keep their distance.• Shots were fired into the air to force the police to keep their distance.• Police warned the public to keep their distance if they saw a man fitting this description.• Men tend to keep their children at more of a distance than women.• At first we kept our distance.• Stick to the paths, and make sure you keep your distance from nesting birds. 