close-at-hand
adjective
lying in the near future or vicinity; nearby or imminent.
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close-at-hand
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close at hand
close at handsee at hand.
close-at-hand
American
[klohs-uht-hand]
/ ˈkloʊs ətˈhænd /
adjective
close at hand
Idioms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Rubens leads our eye along diagonal lines from the ground to the sky, from the close-at-hand to the faraway, incrementally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Drawing grand lessons from especially vivid and close-at-hand examples is always tempting.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 24, 2014
We’re better at dealing with problems that are concrete, close-at-hand, familiar and require skills and tools that we already possess.
From Time ● Jul. 15, 2013
The numerous species of traps use ingenious methods to cover the insects imprisoned in the blossom with the sticky pollen that they carry to the flower's close-at-hand female sex organ as they try to escape.
From Time Magazine Archive
The thick of the night was light and dark, with the dense intensity of down-pour; light in itself, and dark with shutting out all sight of everything—a close-at-hand confusion, and a distance out of measure.
From Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
As days, weeks and months passed, he repeatedly said that an agreement to end the conflict was close at hand and that Iran was already defeated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
"I’ve been working towards AGI my whole life and now, like many of you, I feel it is close at hand," Hassabis wrote in Wednesday's blog post.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
The dawning of reality should be close at hand now for England players - 'maybe it's not you, Scotland, maybe it's us'.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
In a corner of their ramshackle tent in southern Gaza, Ghaidaa Qudaih and her family keep a baby stroller and three backpacks filled with clothes, diapers, milk and other necessities close at hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2025
All I needed was a trail down to the cave and then the canoe would be close at hand.
From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
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.
