(~s, distancing, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
The ~ between two points or places is the amount of space between them.
...the ~ between the island and the nearby shore...
Everything is within walking ~...
N-VAR: with supp, oft N between pl-n
2.
When two things are very far apart, you talk about the ~ between them.
The ~ wouldn’t be a problem.
N-UNCOUNT
3.
Distance learning or ~ education involves studying at home and sending your work to a college or university, rather than attending the college or university in person.
I’m doing a theology degree by ~ learning.
ADJ: ADJ n
4.
When you want to emphasize that two people or things do not have a close relationship or are not the same, you can refer to the ~ between them.
There was a vast ~ between psychological clues and concrete proof...
N-UNCOUNT: usu N between pl-n emphasis
5.
If you can see something in the ~, you can see it, far away from you.
We suddenly saw her in the ~...
N-SING: in/into the N
6.
Distance is coolness or unfriendliness in the way that someone behaves towards you. (FORMAL)
There were periods of sulking, of pronounced ~, of coldness.
? closeness
N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp
7.
If you ~ yourself from a person or thing, or if something ~s you from them, you feel less friendly or positive towards them, or become less involved with them.
The author ~d himself from some of the comments in his book...
Television may actually be distancing the public from the war.
VERB: V pron-refl from n, V n from n
~d
Clough felt he’d become too ~d from his fans.
ADJ: v-link ADJ, usu ADJ from n
8.
If you are at a ~ from something, or if you see it or remember it from a ~, you are a long way away from it in space or time.
The only way I can cope with my mother is at a ~...
Now I can look back on the whole tragedy from a ~ of forty years.
PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR
9.
If you keep your ~ from someone or something or keep them at a ~, you do not become involved with them.
Jay had always tended to keep his girlfriends at a ~.
PHRASE: V inflects
10.
If you keep your ~ from someone or something, you do not get physically close to them. (OLD-FASHIONED)
He walked towards the doorway, careful to keep his ~.
PHRASE: V inflects