pl. [CLOSE a. + QUARTERS.]
1. Naut. (See quots. = earlier CLOSE-FIGHTS.)
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xlv. 210. We had provided close quarters and powder-chests; so that they could not have taken us without an encounter.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Close-quarters, certain strong barriers of wood stretching across a merchant-ship in several places. They are used as a place of retreat when a ship is boarded by her adversary, and are … fitted with … loop holes, through which to fire.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 107.
2. fig. Immediate contact with the foe.
1809. Roland, Fencing, Introd. 29. They [marines] are more frequently at close quarters with the enemy than the military are.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. viii. (1857), 137. The combatants were brought into close quarters.
1864. MacDougall, Mod. Warfare, 241 (L.). This force … made no attempt to come to close quarters with their enemy.
1882. Daily News, 29 Aug., 5/3. His cavalry are far too shy of coming to close quarters.
