near

adj

1. Physically close.

   “I can't see near objects very clearly without my glasses.”

   “Stay near at all times.”

   “At the end of the line nearest the Arch, under a flary light, stood an old bearded man having the look on his face of a kindly but somewhat irritated moo-cow.”

   “Without any ceremony the near man let drive at my throat with one of those beastly wavy daggers they go in for.”

2. Close in time.

   “The end is near.”

   “We're getting near to Christmas.”

3. Closely connected or related.

   “The deceased man had no near relatives.”

   “she is thy fathers neere kinswoman.”

4. Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; intimate; dear.

   “It is a matter of near consequence to me.”

   “a near friend”

   “The Besht preached that the simple man, imbued with native faith and able to pray fervently and wholeheartedly with a sense of joy in his heart, was nearer and dearer to God than the learned but joyless formalist spending his whole life in the study of Talmud.”

5. Close to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling.

   “a version near to the original”

6. So as barely to avoid or pass injury or loss; close; narrow.

   “a near escape”

7. Approximate, almost.

   “The two words are near synonyms.”

8. (British)On the side nearest to the kerb (the left-hand side if one drives on the left).

   “The near front wheel came loose.”

9. (dated)Next to the driver, when he is on foot; (US) on the left of an animal or a team.

   “the near ox; the near leg”

10. (obsolete)Immediate; direct; close; short.

    “Toward ſolid good what leads the neareſt way;”

11. (archaic)Stingy; parsimonious.

    “Don't be near with your pocketbook.”

    “[T]o let you know, Miss, he's so near, it's partly a wonder how he lives at all: and yet he's worth a power of money, too.”

12. (not-comparable)Within the currently selected segment in a segmented memory architecture.

    “a near pointer”

adv

1. At or towards a position close in space or time.
2. Nearly; almost.

   “He was near unconscious when I found him.”

   “I jumped into the near-freezing water.”

   “I near ruptured myself trying to move the piano.”

   “[…] he hears for certain that the Queen-Mother is about and hath near finished a peace with France […]”

   “Sir John Friend had very near completed a regiment of horse.”

prep

1. Physically close to, in close proximity to.

   “There are habitable planets orbiting many of the stars near our Sun.”

   “Ts'ai Ch'ien 蔡乾 was born in 1908 in Changhua near Taichung, Taiwan (Formosa).”

   “He entered the inn, and asking for dinner, unbuckled his wallet, and sat down to rest himself near the door.”

   “This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.”

   “It shied, balked, and whinnied, and in the end he could do nothing but drive it into the yard while the men used their own strength to get the heavy wagon near enough the hayloft for convenient pitching.”

2. Close to in time.

   “The voyage was near completion.”

3. Close to in nature or degree.

   “His opinions are near the limit of what is acceptable.”

   “There was no way Brín felt anything anywhere near what I felt for him. He saw me as a friend.”

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To come closer to; to approach.

   “The ship nears the land.”

   “We started back in the same conditions, and for part of the journey ran through semi-darkness, but the sun appeared once again as we neared London.”

   “As he neared a bridge over the East Coast Main Line near Great Heck, he lost control. His Land Rover left the carriageway and veered onto the hard shoulder before biting into the grass verge.”

noun

1. The left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.
2. (Derbyshire, dialectal, rare)Kidney.

name

1. A surname.