within an ace of

within an ace of (doing) something

and within a hair('s breadth) of something

very close to doing something. I came within an ace of getting into an accident. We were within an ace of beating the all-time record. We were within a hair's breadth of beating the all-time record.

within an ace of

Also, within an inch of. Very close to, within a narrow margin of, as in We were within an ace of calling you, but we'd lost your phone number, or We were within an inch of buying tickets for that concert. The first term refers to the ace of dice, that is, the one pip on a die. The lowest number one can throw with a pair of dice is two (two aces), a throw that is within an ace of one. The term began to be used for other kinds of near miss by about 1700.

within an ace of

On the verge of; very near to: came within an ace of losing the election.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Jewell	['dʒu:əlz]
Anxo	AN-shaw	Galician
Norberto	nor-BER-to (Spanish, Italian)	Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
Peter	PEE-tər (English), PE-ter (German, Slovak), PAY-tər (Dutch)	English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Slovene, Slovak, Biblical
XoÁN	-	Galician
Sara	SAH-rah (Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Polish), ZAH-rah (German), SER-ə (English), SAR-ə (English), SAH:-rah (Arabic)	Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, German