spitting distance | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Ashortdistance.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, withinspitting distanceof the President, have not alone been proved so, but still retain their places.1899April 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 withinspitting distanceof collision and bumping distance of the bottom."1972September, John Pearson, “Science Worldwide”, inPopular Mechanics,page36:They live withinspitting distanceof a busy runway at London's Heathrow Airport.2007,Paul Levine,Trial & Error,→ISBN,page120:"Look around. Justice Building. County Jail. Sheriff's Department. A thousand cops withinspitting distance."

Examples:

EN: I bet she's got a bedsitter within spitting distance.
ES: Apuesto a que tiene una cama esperando a tiro de piedra.
EN: Well, we should get within spitting distance during the graveyard watch.
ES: Bueno, deberíamos estar a poca distancia. durante la guardia del cementerio.
EN: That spitting distance or what?
ES: ¿Está cerca o qué?
EN: - With those things almost within spitting distance, we're not even gonna get an eagle up off the pad.
ES: Con esas naves casi encima no puede despegar un Águila.
EN: What the hell would we be doing refueling a Harrier within spitting distance of Russia?
ES: ¿Por qué diablos deberíamos reabastecer un Harrier estando tan cerca de Rusia?
EN: He's got 80 yards of electrified fence spitting distance to the house.
ES: Tiene 73 m de cerco electrificado a dos pasos de la casa.
EN: - Twenty seconds from spitting distance.
ES: - A veinte segundos.
EN: Within spitting distance.
ES: - A corta distancia.
EN: Which doesn't make him guilty, but he did have access to the pathogen, and he does live spitting distance to Union Station.
ES: Lo que no lo hace culpable, pero tenía acceso al patógeno y vive muy cerca de la Estación Union.
EN: I don't know, maybe 12,000 other establishments within spitting distance!
ES: No sé, quizás otros 12,000 establecimientos a tiro de piedra!
EN: You think if there was a monster truck jamboree anywhere within spitting distance of this place, we'd be here?
ES: ¿Cree que si hubiera cerca una muestra de camiones gigantes estaríamos aquí?
EN: But you combine it, with what you're already bringing home, you're going to be within spitting distance of what you're making last year.
ES: Pero sumado a lo que ya ganas, te quedarías a un escupitajo de lo que ganabas el año pasado.
EN: Look. Two nights ago they had planes on patrol within spitting distance of where Colonel Howard's body was found.
ES: Hace dos noches, tenían dos aviones patrullando muy cerca de donde encontraron el cuerpo del coronel Howard.
EN: She died within spitting distance of the street. But hey!
ES: Murió al lado de la calle pero ¡hey!
EN: If he's within spitting distance, I want him in custody immediately.
ES: Si se encuentra en una distancia considerable, lo quiero en custodia inmediatamente.

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