in the distance

in the distance (not comparable)

1. far away; a long distance away
   • 2019 September 22, Miriam Jordan, “Refugee Cutbacks Could Isolate Rohingya Children in the U.S.”, in New York Times‎:

     While Hefzur was adjusting, conditions for the Rohingya in Myanmar, where his family was still living, were deteriorating. His parents described villages burning in the distance. They had to go, they informed him.

   • 1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 17:

     After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.

   • 1860, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White‎:

     It was, by my watch, nearly an hour and a half from the time of our leaving the station before I heard the sound of the sea in the distance