English · Idiom Attested

cheek by jowl

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Sense 1

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Side by side.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cạnh nhau

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Spend some time in Kuala Lumpur, the hub of the country, and discover the opulence, the squalor, the old and the new, all standing cheek by jowl and forming a massive, crazy, but undeniably fascinating, whole.

And with all those people stacked up in X - ray, cheek by jowl, rubbing their short, white dressing gowns together, the plates were bound to have got into the wrong envelopes.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Sense 2

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Side by side, hand to fist.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cạnh nhau

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1811 (Georgian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811 edition, public domain; Project Gutenberg #5402, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Sense 3

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

side by side—said often of persons in such close confabulation that their faces almost touch.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cạnh nhau

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “cheek by jowl” mean?

Side by side.

Is “cheek by jowl” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.