Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun psychology A person who tends to maintain emotional distance and detachment
  • noun A means for establishing distance
  • noun dated A long-distance runner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

distance +‎ -er

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Examples

  • It is quite common that one person in a partnership is the "distancer" and the other is the "pursuer," so you can alter this "play" by you yourself becoming the distancer.

    Vh1 Blog 2009

  • One popular phrase among psychologists is “the distancer and the pursuer”, says Northam.

    Why Men and Women Argue Differently | Impact Lab 2007

  • If you're a distancer, try approaching your partner much more consistently.

    Dr. Joshua Coleman: Top 5 Signs You May be Heading for Divorce 2008

  • Over time, the pursuer gets more desperate, hurt, and angry and the distancer gets more sullen, shut down, and rejecting.

    Dr. Joshua Coleman: Top 5 Signs You May be Heading for Divorce 2008

  • We're going to put a distancer on this for you, and show you as it reaches out up here towards the coast, it's roughly about 180 miles away.

    CNN Transcript Aug 31, 2008 2008

  • Clearly the U.S. would not be best-pleased and Egypt is likely to do the big distancer given Nasrallah's admission of sending undercover agent provocateurs into Egypt and possible involvement with the last bombing in Cairo.

    Good Neighbours Yaeli 2009

  • One of the more familiar, and problematic, family constellations, for instance, is the so-called persuader-distancer couple, consisting of an "over-involved" mother and an "unavailable 'father who between them, stir up a witch's brew offamily tensions.

    Fixing The 'Between' 2008

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