packed like sardines

packed (in) like sardines

Very tightly or snugly packed together, especially in a small space. We didn't want to take more than one car, so we had to drive for about four hours packed like sardines in Jeff's little sedan. Having a concert in our friends café was such a good idea! Sure, we were packed in like sardines, but everyone had a great time.
See also: like, packed, sardine
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

packed (in) like sardines

Fig. packed very tightly. It was terribly crowded there. We were packed in like sardines. The bus was full. The passengers were packed like sardines.
See also: like, packed, sardine
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

packed like sardines

If a group of people are packed like sardines, they are standing very close together because there is not enough room in an enclosed space. We were packed like sardines in the ship and could barely move. Note: Other words such as crammed, jammed or squashed are sometimes used instead of packed. The male sauna was really packed. There were about five people squashed in there like sardines. Note: The image here is of tinned sardines which have been tightly packed.
See also: like, packed, sardine
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

packed like sardines

crowded very close together.
See also: like, packed, sardine
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

packed (together) like sarˈdines

(informal) (of people) pressed tightly together in a way that is uncomfortable or unpleasant: On the tube in the rush hour the passengers are packed like sardines.
Sardines are a type of fish that are usually sold packed tightly together in small tins.
See also: like, packed, sardine
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • packed (in) like sardines
  • packed in like sardines
  • squashed (in) like sardines
  • packed
  • sardine
  • be packed (in) like sardines
  • pack (someone or something) (in) like sardines
  • pack like sardines
  • be squashed (in) like sardines
  • squash
References in classic literature
"Tell the white man there's pearl shell in some lagoon infested by ten-thousand howling cannibals, and he'll head there all by his lonely, with half a dozen kanaka divers and a tin alarm clock for chronometer, all packed like sardines on a commodious, five-ton ketch.
South Sea Tales
CRAMMED Passengers are packed like sardines on busiest train routes
and the most jam-packed trains are .. passengers suffer travel chaos Worst service has more than a third too many on board
Passengers are packed like sardines in suffocating heat, but nobody is there to solve their problem, which has been like this for decades and seems to grow by the day.
Appeal to Imran Khan
In short, the trains are NOT overweight even with passengers inside packed like sardines.
Math for dummies-to finally resolve our MRT woes
It certainly brought back a few memories especially the promotion game at Orient in 1972 when we were packed like sardines in a tin behind the goal where Bob got the winner, there was a bomb scare, a pitch invasion and, I think, the game didn't finish till well past nine o'clock and was it a 7.15 kick off.
Blues' Barca encounter; views
Us mere mortals usually find ourselves with our faces stuffed into the sweaty armpit of an overweight stranger as we ride to work packed like sardines. But our favourite model tweeted that she had the humiliation of being stuck with her mug pushed up against her very own backside.
badweekfor... PM ON SATURDAY HE KNOWS THE CELEBS..COS HE THINKS HE IS ONE
Some of his reminders: "You are your own altar guild; look after the small linens," "It's summer and they are packed like sardines, so brevity is appreciated."
Worshipping summer style, in God's country
The pleasure of standing on a hot, single decker bus packed like sardines, paying outrageous fares.
City needs buses worth of a capital
A neighbour found three victims shot in a brutal Rolex robbery lying side by side as if 'packed like sardines' moments after the attack, a court heard yesterday.
Three shot for Rolex, court told
Stalls are aplenty and all over, but packed like sardines. The passageways are crammed, especially the one going to Carriedo exit, because of the presence of too many stalls.
Lacson Underpass makeover hailed, still fails expectations
Women won't put up with being packed like sardines and pushed around by swaying crowds.
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