cheek to jowl

Adverb

cheek by jowl (comparative more cheek by jowl, superlative most cheek by jowl)

1. (UK, idiomatic) In very close physical proximity; crowded together; side by side.
   • Ile go vvith thee, cheeke by iovvle.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]...

   Synonyms:

   alongside, cheek for chowl, elbow to elbow, shoulder-to-shoulder, tooth-to-jowl

2. (UK, figuratively, idiomatic) 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.1929 September, Virginia Woolf, chapter VI, in A Room of One’s Own, uniform edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1931 (April 1935 printing), →OCLC, page 164

See all 3 meanings of cheek by jowl