harm's way
Appearance
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]harm's way (plural not attested)
- A place or course of danger.
- He kept his family out of harm's way.
- They put themselves in harm's way.
- 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras[1], London, Canto 1, p. 27:
- For in the hurry of a Fray / ’Tis hard to keep out of harm’s way
- 2020 May 20, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: More trains... but advice is not to use public transport”, in Rail, page 8:
- "If it gets crowded and dangerous, we want station closures. And if that doesn't happen, we'll be telling our members to move out of harm's way and into a safe place, which will lead to station closures. [...]"
Usage notes
[edit]- This noun phrase is used almost exclusively as the object of prepositions, principally in, into, and out of, and from.
- Uncommonly, way is modified by determiners or adjectives or appears as object of a verb.