close to home

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

Meaning · English

Relevant to the point that you feel uncomfortable.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

liên quan đến mức bạn cảm thấy không thoải mái

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The right hon. Gentleman might look close to home before he makes that general assertion.
Anything to get closer to home … stalling tactics …

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).

Common questions

What does “close to home” mean?

Relevant to the point that you feel uncomfortable.

Is “close to home” formal or informal?

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