cheek by jowl

adverb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˌt͡ʃiːk baɪ ˈd͡ʒaʊl/ / /ˌt͡ʃik baɪ ˈd͡ʒaʊl/

adj

Etymology: From cheek + by + jowl (“cheek; jaw”) (or possibly jowl (“fold of fatty flesh under the chin, around the cheeks, or lower jaw; cheek”) or jowl (“(obsolete) head”)), suggesting people so close to each other that the cheek of one person is next to the jowl of another.

Often in the form cheek-by-jowl: in very close physical proximity; crowded together; tightly packed.
“And 'tvvas not long, before ſhe found / Him, and his ſtout Squire, in the Pound; / Both coupled in Inchanted Tether, / By further leg behind together: / For as he ſate upon his Rump, / His head like one in doleful dump, / Betvveen his knees, his hands appli'd / Unto his ears on either ſide. / And by him, in another hole, / Afflicted Ralpho, cheek by Joul; […]”
“As we drove at breakneck speed through the streets, I could not help but be overwhelmed by the gaunt and desperate faces of the people, the endless squatter settlements of cheek-by-jowl, single-room shacks surrounded by ankle-deep mud, and the occasional glimpses of the rich apparently oblivious to the suffering around them.”

adv

In very close physical proximity; crowded together; side by side.
“Ile go vvith thee, cheeke by iovvle.”
“VVee ſee Marchants, countrie-Iuſtices, and Artificers to march cheeke by joll vvith our Nobilitie, in valour, and military diſcipline.”
In very close or intimate association.
“[B]ooks have a way of influencing each other. Fiction will be much the better for standing cheek by jowl with poetry and philosophy.”
“Exit and voice, social theorist Albert O[tto] Hirschman's famous dichotomous strategies, collided in the South Carolina countryside, where renewed commitment to the nation existed cheek by jowl with exit from it.”