CLOSE AT HAND

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does close at hand mean? 

• CLOSE AT HAND (adjective)
  The adjective CLOSE AT HAND has 2 senses:

1. close in space; within reach

2. close in time; about to occur

  Familiarity information: CLOSE AT HAND used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLOSE AT HAND (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close in space; within reach

Synonyms:

at hand; close at hand

Context example:

the town is close at hand

Similar:

close (at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Close in time; about to occur

Synonyms:

at hand; close at hand; imminent; impendent; impending

Context example:

his impending retirement

Similar:

close (at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other)

 Context examples 

The boat was close at hand now, and in desperate plight.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The dawn is close at hand, and we have reason to be content with our first night's work.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

One glance told her of the danger close at hand.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

But help was close at hand.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One evening when the time was close at hand, I was alone with Peggotty and her brother.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I find you rather alarming, when I examine you close at hand: you talk of my being a fairy, but I am sure, you are more like a brownie.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had half a mind to change my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others might be close at hand, and all might very well be lost by trying for too much.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But when, one morning, the air was rent with the report of a rifle close at hand, and a bullet smashed against a tree trunk several inches from One Eye's head, they hesitated no more, but went off on a long, swinging lope that put quick miles between them and the danger.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

What of the thin and rotten ice he had felt under his feet all day, it seemed that he sensed disaster close at hand, out there ahead on the ice where his master was trying to drive him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Or, perhaps,—who can tell? —it was that fabled sixth sense which conveyed to him the loom and feel of an object close at hand.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)