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keep (someone or something) at bay (redirected from keep at bay)
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Related to keep at bay: hold at bay
keep (someone or something) at bay
To keep someone or something at a distance or from reaching full potency, especially in order to prevent harm to oneself.
During my college years, the only things I had to keep hunger at bay were beans, rice, and plain pasta.
You have to start meeting your minimum monthly repayments if you want to keep your creditors at bay.
These tree frogs have a powerful poison on their backs that helps keep predators at bay.
See also: bay, keep
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
keep something/someone at bay or hold something/someone at bay
COMMON If you keep something or someone at bay or hold them at bay, you stop them from attacking you or harming you. By salting the meat, bacteria were kept at bay, preserving the meat for future use. Tooth decay can be held at bay by fluoride toothpaste and good dentistry. A dozen American soldiers held the crowd at bay until the helicopter lifted off. Note: When a hunted animal is at bay, it is trapped by the hounds (= hunting dogs) and forced to turn and face them to defend itself. However, if the animal is successfully defending itself in this position, you can say that it is holding the hounds at bay. This second use seems the most likely origin of the expression.
See also: bay, keep, someone, something
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
hold/keep somebody/something at ;bay prevent somebody/something from coming too close or attacking: Vitamin C helps to keep colds and flu at bay.
See also: bay, hold, keep, somebody, something
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
See also:
keep something/someone at bay
hold (someone or something) at bay
hold at bay
hold at bay, to
hold someone or something at bay
hold/keep somebody/something at bay
leave (someone, something, or oneself) (wide) open for (something)
leave oneself wide open for
keep sight of
keep sight of (someone or something)

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What's the meaning of the phrase 'Keep at bay'?
Prevent, either a person or an event, from advancing nearer.


What's the origin of the phrase 'Keep at bay'?

'Keep at bay' (sometimes used as 'hold at bay') is one of those expressions that we are likely to know the meaning of because we have picked it up from colloquial use in our youth and worked out the meaning from the context it was used in. The nature of how we learn language allows us to gain a knowledge of what an idiom means without necessarily knowing the meaning of the words contained in it - which I guess is why pages like this one get readers.

Anyhow, back to the phrase itself. It seems plausible that 'at bay' is a nautical phrase and that the allusion is to a ship that is anchored in a bay and waiting to enter a port. 'In the offing' has pretty much the same meaning. As it turns out, we only need one expression in English for that circumstance and 'keep at bay' derives from a completely different place.

Keep at bay The Old French words 'abbay' or 'abai' mean 'barking'. These came into English, first as 'abay' and later as 'at bay'. Hounds that were barking were said in the 14th century to be 'at a bay'. This is recorded in the English romantic story Guy of Warwick, circa 1330:

Into a forest ;at swine him ;ede. Into a ficke hegges he gan him hede. ;er he stod at a bay.

(A fat boar went into a forest. He hid in a thick hedge. He [the hound] stood there barking.)


Keep at bay To keep at bay meant then to be in a standoff with a baying dog that was intent on killing - a scenario which also gave us the expression 'baying for blood'. In more placid moments hounds also 'bay at the moon'.

In recent times the phrase 'keep at bay' has taken on the more general meaning of 'fend off'. The earliest example that I can find of the modern 'keep at bay' (as opposed to 'at a bay') and which doesn't refer directly to hunting with dogs is from The Derby Mercury, February 1759, in a report of England's war with France:

We have seen the French kept at bay for the whole campaign, and they are gone into their winter quarters.