keep someone at bay —(also: hold someone at bay) maintain a safe distance from smb.; prevent a person from acting:
- These people come from sick, evil families and we good Americans are trying to keep them at bay.
keep the wolf at bay—manage to make enough money to avoid going hungry or falling heavily into debt:
- An engineer can just about always survive by computer programming, so we kept the wolf at bay when I took a job in Houston.