Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - near

~1 adv, prep 1 only a short distance from a person or thing  (Bob was standing near enough to hear what they said. | Why don't you move your chair nearer mine? | near to)  (Don't sit too near to the screen. | go/come/get etc near (=to move near someone or something))  (Don't come any nearer - I have a gun. | As the car drew nearer I realised the man was a stranger.) 2 come/be near (to) sth to almost do something or almost be in a particular state  (She had what came near to a perfect singing voice. | come/be near (to) tears/death etc)  (Sarah was trembling, and near to tears. | come/be near to doing sth)  (Samuel came very near to rejecting the award before accepting graciously.) 3 soon before a particular time or event  (Near the day of the wedding she started to have second thoughts.)  (Remind me nearer the time of the meeting.) draw near  (As my birthday drew near, I began to dread being fifty.) 4 near perfect/impossible etc almost perfect etc  (The dye left a near transparent liquid on the surface of her skin.) 5 (as) near as dammit BrE spoken used to say that something is very nearly true or correct  (The repairs will cost us -1000, as near as dammit.) ~2 adj 1 only a short distance away from someone or something  (It's a beautiful house but it's 20 miles away from the nearest town. | We can meet at the pub or in the restaurant, whichever's nearer for you.)  (Of course I've heard of the Littleton sports centre - it's near to my college.) 2 if something is near something else, it is similar to it +to  (It seems that his diaries are as near to the truth as we'll ever get. | Hyde Park is the nearest thing we have to the countryside round here. | It may not be an exact replica but it's pretty damn near.) 3 a near disaster/collapse etc almost a disaster, a collapse etc  (The factory has seen a near doubling of it's output this year alone.) 4 be a near thing a) if something you succeed in doing is a near thing, you manage to succeed but you nearly failed  (They won the championship, but it was a near thing.) b) used to say that you just managed to avoid a dangerous or unpleasant situation  (That was a near thing - that truck was heading straight for us.) 5 be a near miss if a bomb, shot etc is a near miss it seemed as if it would hit something but did not 6 in the near future soon  (They promised to contact us again some time in the near future.) 7 to the nearest -10/hundred etc an amount to the nearest -10, hundred etc is the number nearest to it that can be divided by -10, a hundred etc  (Give me the car mileage to the nearest thousand.) 8 a) near relative/relation a relative who is very closely related to you such as a parent  (You are only allowed time off if the funeral is for a near relative.) b) sb's nearest and dearest humorous someone's family 9 (only before a noun, no comparative a) used to describe the side of something that is closest to where you are  (the near bank of the river) b) used when talking about the wheels on a vehicle to mean the one on the left side  (the near wheel of a car)  (- opposite off3 (3))  (- see also nearly, nowhere near nowhere (4)) - nearness n ~3 v 1 to come closer to a particular place, time, or state; approach1  (Work is nearing completion. | The ship was nearing harbour.) 2 if a time nears, it gets closer and will come soon  (He got more and more nervous as the day of his departure neared.)