English

Noun

spitting distance ‎(plural spitting distances)

1. (idiomatic) A short distance.
   • 1840, A. Traveller, Notes upon Canada and the United States: from 1832 to 1840, Rogers and Thompson (Toronto), p. 180:

     [N]o less than forty defaulters in the executive, within spitting distance of the President, have not alone been proved so, but still retain their places.

   • 1899 April 27, Rudyard Kipling, quoted in "A Fleet in Being: Men who take their chances," West Coast Times (New Zealand), p. 4 (retrieved 15 Oct 2010):

     "In these craft they risk the extreme perils of the sea. . . . They have been within spitting distance of collision and bumping distance of the bottom."

   • 1972, John Pearson, "Science Worldwide," Popular Mechanics, September, p. 36:

     They live within spitting distance of a busy runway at London's Heathrow Airport.

   • 2007, Paul Levine, Trial & Error, ISBN 9780440242765, p. 120:

     "Look around. Justice Building. County Jail. Sheriff's Department. A thousand cops within spitting distance."

Usage notes

• This term usually refers to a spatial distance, but is sometimes used in an extended manner to indicate a "distance" which is other than spatial, as, for example, in:

• 1982, Hans Fantel, "Fusion: We're Harnessing The Power Of The H-Bomb," Popular Mechanics, September, p. 86:

  But two gigantic research projects—one at Princeton University, the other at the University of Rochester—are finally getting within spitting distance of producing useful energy from fusion reactions.

Translations

References

• spitting distance at OneLook Dictionary Search