Meaning
At very close range or in cramped, direct proximity, whether physically (living, fighting, observing) or figuratively (engaging with a problem intimately). Standard register with no strong regional restriction; common in military, sporting, and journalistic writing. Neutral; frequent in military, sporting, and journalistic contexts. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase comes from shipboard defence rather than open battle. Seventeenth-century sources describe wooden barriers, called 'close-fights', built across a deck as a fallback when boarders attacked; John Smith's Seaman's Grammar (1627) defines them as crossed wooden ledges. By the mid-eighteenth century the protected space itself was called 'close quarters': Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769) defines it as strong wooden barriers across a merchant ship, and fighting from behind them meant engaging the enemy at arm's length. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms likewise calls it eighteenth-century naval warfare, with crew retreating behind wooden barriers to fire through loopholes, and dates it to about 1800. Figurative use, meaning simply 'close by' with no fighting involved, is found in The Times by 1819. 'Close' originally meant 'closed' or 'enclosed' and was later reinterpreted as 'near'.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- close quarters
- close-quarters (attributive)
- fighting at close quarters
- in close quarters
Usage Examples
- The documentary shows leopards at close quarters, filmed from a modified safari vehicle.
- Referees have to make split-second decisions at close quarters while players crowd around them.
- The two candidates finally met at close quarters in Tuesday's debate after weeks of trading insults online.