Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for near thing

near thing

noun

  1. informal.
    an event or action whose outcome is nearly a failure, success, disaster, etc
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Something just barely effected, as in That election was a near thing—he won by a handful of votes . [Mid-1700s]
Discover More

Example Sentences

It was a near thing though, and if I had not met you as I did, we should scarcely have done it.

"It was a near thing—a michty near thing," he admitted in the square.

It was a near thing, and Conal used his tongue pretty freely when he talked of it.

It was a near thing for the doctor, however, and two minutes more of that grip would have done for him.

The Duke of Wellington used to say that "In every case, the winning of a battle was always a damned near thing."

Advertisement

Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


near-termnear threatened