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close call
[ klohs ]
noun
- a narrow escape from danger or trouble.
close call
/ °ì±ôəʊ²õ /
noun
- another expression for close shave
˜yÐÄvlog History and Origins
Origin of close call1
Idioms and Phrases
Also, close shave . Narrow escape, near miss. For example, That skier just missed the tree—what a close call , or That was a close shave, nearly leaving your passport behind . The first phrase dates from the late 1800s and comes from sports, alluding to an official's decision ( call ) that could have gone either way. The second, from the early 1800s, alludes to the narrow margin between closely shaved skin and a razor cut. (This latter usage replaced the much earlier equation of a close shave with miserliness, based on the idea that a close shave by a barber meant one would not have to spend money on another shave quite so soon.) Also see too close for comfort .Example Sentences
Already, they’ve had one close call, removing the tiles from one home just two days before the Army Corps arrived.
But an uptick in aviation incidents in the past month, including a handful of plane crashes and close calls, has reignited concerns about employee workloads.
She had wanted to keep the house for her daughter, but her daughter, with memories of past fire close calls, wanted nothing to do with it.
He suspects the survival is some combination of luck and updates he made to his house after a close call during the 2009 Station fire.
It’s not a close call — it’s the only call.
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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.
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