spitting distance

Noun

 * 1)  A short distance.
 * 2) * 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.
 * 1) * 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."

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:

Translations

 * French: ,
 * Greek: δυο βήματα
 * Hungarian: köpésnyi
 * Turkish: