Meaning
To hold a threat, an enemy or an unwelcome force at a distance and prevent it from advancing or doing harm. The object is usually something undesirable, from illness and debt to criticism and invading armies, and the phrase implies active, continuing effort rather than a settled solution. Slightly formal or literary in flavour, and typically used of threats and forces rather than people one merely dislikes. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Bay here is the deep barking of hounds, from Old French abai, barking, itself from bayer, to gape or bark; the root is echoic, imitating howling. In the language of the chase, hounds hunting by scent barked hardest when they had found the quarry, and a hunted animal that turned at the last to face its pursuers was 'at bay', unable to flee further. Etymonline records the earlier form 'at abai', used of hunted animals, from about 1300, dates 'at bay' to the late 14th century, and finds the phrase used figuratively of humans in distress from about 1400. The Phrase Finder's earliest record is the Middle English romance Guy of Warwick (c. 1330), 'ber he stod at a bay', describing a hound baying at a boar in a hedge, and the same standoff imagery lies behind 'baying for blood'. Its earliest modern, non-hunting example is the Derby Mercury of February 1759, reporting that 'the French kept at bay for the whole campaign'. A nautical theory about ships waiting in a harbour bay is dismissed out of hand.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- be held at bay
- hold at bay
- keep something at bay
- stand at bay
Usage Examples
- Regular flea treatments have kept the infestation at bay all summer.
- Foreign currency reserves held the debt crisis at bay for another quarter.
- The castle's garrison stood at bay for six weeks before relief arrived.