What is "arm's-length"

Usage examples of "arm's-length".

The case for the Bernard Island Corporation was presented by attorneys Hubbard Yoder and Robert Thomas Schlesinger, with the assistance of three paralegals, three appraisers, a tabletop model of Bernard Island as it would have looked when developed, a series of slides showing the development of comparable Gulf-front land in the area, along with the assessed value thereof, a history of the sales of land in the vicinity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast along with arm's-length appraisals thereof, a file of the land sales on Bernard Island with the prices the buyers were willing to pay for the lots.

And yet it was the general feeling that one whose name had been so sadly besmirched must be kept at more than arm's-length.

Dare we indeed string them together, and add the case of the deserted ruin, as though the dead continually besieged the paepaes of the living: were kept at arm's-length, even from the first foundation, only by propitiatory feasts, and, so soon as the fire of life went out upon the hearth, swarmed back into possession of their ancient seat?