at bay
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to keep something or someone under control
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
để giữ điều gì đó hoặc ai đó dưới sự kiểm soát
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: at a distance, like a hunted animal
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The firefighters managed to keep the blaze at bay until reinforcements arrived
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “at bay” mean?
to keep something or someone under control Literally: at a distance, like a hunted animal
Is “at bay” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.