keeping away
Maintaining one's distance
Keeping away is maintaining distance from something or someone, either physically or figuratively.
It implies ongoing effort to avoid contact or proximity: She's been keeping away from her ex lately, The smell should be keeping away the mosquitoes.
The phrase suggests deliberate avoidance rather than mere absence.
- deterringPreventing through fear
- fending offDeflecting approaching threats
- blockingImpeding forward progress
- forestallingPreventing by prior action
- evasionAct of escaping detection
abstention · prohibiting · off limits · separation · rejection · remoteness · out of reach · dodging · estrangement · shunning · averting · ostracism · at arm's length · hindering · sidestepping · obstructing · isolation · no contact
- driving awayrepelling, banishing, forcing out, warding off, fending off
- nonparticipationnonparticipation, noninvolvement, noninterference, nonintervention, abstention
keeping awayapproaching
Coming toward something
closing in · nearing · converging · advancing · encroaching
keeping awayseeking out
reaching out · keeping in touch · coming around · joining · befriending