cheek by jowl


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Related to cheek by jowl: broken reed

cheek

 (chēk)
n.
1. The fleshy part of either side of the face below the eye and between the nose and ear.
2. Something resembling the cheek in shape or position.
3. Either of the buttocks.
4. Impertinent boldness: had the cheek to insult his hosts.
tr.v. cheeked, cheek·ing, cheeks Informal
To speak impudently to.
Idiom:
cheek by jowl
Side by side; close together.

[Middle English cheke, from Old English cēace.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adv.1.cheek by jowl - in close proximity; "the houses were jumbled together cheek by jowl"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
References in classic literature ?
So the unwilling prelate was dragged away, cheek by jowl, with the half-cooked venison upon the back of his own horse; and Robin and his band took charge of the whole company and led them through the forest glades till they came to an open space near Barnesdale.
Here they lay, cheek by jowl with life: no deeper down than the feet of the throng that passed there every day, and piled high as their throats.
The redskins disappear as they have come like shadows, and soon their place is taken by the beasts, a great and motley procession: lions, tigers, bears, and the innumerable smaller savage things that flee from them, for every kind of beast, and, more particularly, all the man-eaters, live cheek by jowl on the favoured island.
"What did they do, all the chaps I knew, the chaps in the clubs with whom I'd been cheek by jowl for heaven knows how long?
Butler, Hermann von Schmidt cheek by jowl with Charley Hapgood, and one by one and in pairs he judged them and dismissed them - judged them by the standards of intellect and morality he had learned from the books.
12, or my relative of the extreme cote gauche, who had strangely enough found his way into this very room, and was now lying cheek by jowl with me again, in old Mrs.
Running in cake-ice all the way, and several times escaping jams in the Yukon Flats, the barges made their hundreds of miles of progress farther into the north and froze up cheek by jowl with the grub-fleet.
If we are merely loquacious and loud talkers, then we can afford to stand very near together, cheek by jowl, and feel each other's breath; but if we speak reservedly and thoughtfully, we want to be farther apart, that all animal heat and moisture may have a chance to evaporate.
True, we had lived cheek by jowl with one another; yet never once had I caught a glimpse of his abode.
To the Western man (though this would not please either city) Chicago and Boston are cheek by jowl, and some railroads encourage the delusion.
Not that Nasmyth took this tone about Raffles when he and I found ourselves cheek by jowl against the ballroom wall; he could forgive his franker critics, but not the friendly enemy who had treated him so much more gently than he deserved.
"Living cheek by jowl with nature in Wales, it's impossible not to feel an affinity with the natural environment," she said.