hop, skip, and a jump

American  

Or hop, skip, and jump

noun

1. a short distance.

   The laundry is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.

---

hop, skip, and a jump Idioms  

1. A short distance, as in It's just a hop, skip, and a jump from my house to yours. This expression, dating from the early 1700s, originally referred to an exercise or game involving these movements, but by the mid-1800s was also being used figuratively for the short distance so covered.

---

Etymology

Origin of hop, skip, and a jump

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

In the top of the first, leadoff hitter AJ Pollock — hitting a hop, skip and a jump away from .400 since the All-Star break — singled to begin the Dodgers’ attack.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2021

Yes there may be a hop skip and a jump required to make the gods of ancient Egypt pertain to 21st-century America, but this drama is trying.

From The Guardian • May 14, 2017

Located in the constellation Vela, it's a mere 39 light-years from Earth — just a hop, skip and a jump in galactic terms.

From Washington Post • Apr. 7, 2017

The Greenwood district has a new theater space:  The Pocket Theatre,  at 8312 Greenwood Ave.  N. near  North 85th Street – a hop, skip and a jump from the neighborhood’s long-established Taproot Theatre. 

From Seattle Times • Aug. 7, 2014

Wasn’t it a hop, skip, and a jump from selling Mother’s goods on the black market to ferrying around documents on her bicycle, to couriering medicines, to smuggling out people?

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman