Touch Something with a Ten-Foot Pole

To avoid at all costs; to stay far away from a difficult problem.

A writer in the mid-1800s wanted a lively way to describe someone who didn’t want to deal with a troublesome issue. The image of a person not wanting to touch something nasty even with a 10-foot pole came to mind, and this idiom was created. It is always used in the negative, with words such as won’t, wouldn’t or don’t, because it refers to something you don’t want to have anything to do with.

The two neighbors came to me with their dispute but I turned them away; I won’t go near them and their problem with a 10-foot pole.

(From the “Dictionary of Idioms,” Marvin Terban, Scholastic Inc., publisher, 1996)