close call

What it means

A close call is a situation where something bad almost happened but was avoided at the last moment — a near miss in driving, a near loss in sports, a near accident at work. It's used both about literal physical near misses and about figurative ones like nearly missing a deadline.

Examples

• That truck nearly hit us — what a close call.
• We had a close call with the deadline, but the report went out on time.
• The match was a close call until the final minute.
• Skipping that flight turned out to be a close call; the connecting one was cancelled.

Where it comes from

An American English idiom from the late 19th century, where 'call' carried the umpire's sense of a decision made on a narrow margin. The phrase extended naturally from baseball and other sports to any near-miss situation.

Related idioms