hold at

hold someone or something at something

to keep someone or something at some distance, such as an arm's length, respectful distance, comfortable distance, etc. I held the child at an arm's length until he could be calmed. The police held the crowd at a distance from the injured man.
See also: hold
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • length
  • arm's length
  • keep (one's) distance from (someone or something)
  • keep distance
  • keep one's distance
  • keep your distance
  • keep (one's) distance
  • put some distance between
  • put some distance between (someone or something)
  • put some distance between someone and someone/something
References in periodicals archive
Frequently he's assigned a hold at a controller-defined fix (e.g., "XYZ 050 radial, 20 DME fix") that is not published anywhere on the charts or in his panel-mounted, GPS-driven display database.
Even so, there's no need to fly around the hold at cruise speed.
Use the GPS OBS mode when assigned a hold at something other than a published fix.
If you're experiencing an abnormal condition, such as an electrical abnormality or the need to manually extend landing gear, request a hold at a safe altitude in which to run your checklist and troubleshoot as needed.
Hold me, thrill me: if you're doing them right, holds are anything but thrilling. but they can be useful at times
For most personal aircraft, speed limitations are not something we need to worry about and--since we're going nowhere in a hurry when holding--we'd suggest flying the hold at best-endurance power.
Dissecting the hold: despite currency requirements, for-real holds are too rare for us to stay proficient. Understanding them is easy if we break them down to the basics
Perhaps more significantly, when the former shareholders or partners of the domestic entity hold at least 80% of the foreign surrogate corporation, that foreign corporation will be treated as a domestic corporation for all Sec.
Corporate inversions and the affiliate-owned stock rule