keep something at bay

Meaning

This phrase means to prevent someone or something from coming too close, attacking, or causing harm. It is frequently used when discussing emotions, illnesses, pests, or difficult situations that you want to manage or control.

Examples

• Drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep helps keep colds at bay during the winter.

  Drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep helps keep colds at bay during the winter.

• She listened to upbeat music to keep her anxiety at bay before the big presentation.

  She listened to upbeat music to keep her anxiety at bay before the big presentation.

• The company implemented new security measures to keep hackers at bay.

  The company implemented new security measures to keep hackers at bay.

• Regular maintenance is crucial if you want to keep rust at bay on your car.

  Regular maintenance is crucial if you want to keep rust at bay on your car.

• They built a massive retaining wall to keep the floodwaters at bay.

  They built a massive retaining wall to keep the floodwaters at bay.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ We need to keep the competitors in bay.

  ✓ We need to keep the competitors at bay.

  The correct idiom uses the preposition "at", not "in" or "on".

• ✗ She tried to keep at bay her negative thoughts.

  ✓ She tried to keep her negative thoughts at bay.

  The object (her negative thoughts) should go between "keep" and "at bay" for natural sentence flow.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Eating healthy food and exercising regularly is the best way to ___ illness.

  💡 Prevent something unwanted from affecting you.

  Show answer

  keep at bay

• She turned on the lights to ___ her fear of the dark.

  💡 Prevent a negative feeling from taking over.

  Show answer

  keep at bay