quarters Idioma

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close quarters|close|quarter|quarters

n. phr. Limited, cramped space. With seven boy scouts in a tent, they were living in very close quarters.

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at close quarters

at close quarters
Crowded, in a confined space, as in We could use a lot more room; this tiny office puts us at close quarters. This idiom makes figurative use of quarters in the sense of “military lodgings” but originated in 18th-century naval warfare. When the enemy boarded a ship, the crew would retreat behind wooden barriers erected for this purpose and would continue to fire through loopholes. They thus were very near the enemy, fighting in close quarters. [c. 1800]