spitting distance

A very short distance, as in We were in spitting distance of winning the pennant but then we lost three games in a row . Alluding to the relatively short distance over which one's spit will carry, this idiom was first recorded in 1895 as within spitting range.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
EugÈNe	uu-ZHEN	French
Sanna	-	Swedish, Finnish
SmiltĖ	-	Lithuanian
Katsuro	kah-tsoo-ṙo:	Japanese
Prescott	['preskət]
Viraj	-	Indian, Marathi, Gujarati