too close for comfort

too close for comfort

1. So close as to cause worry because of being dangerous or unwelcome in some way. The way these planes fly so low over the house is just too close for comfort. My neighbors and I all feel that the new shopping center they're planning near our neighborhood is a little too close for comfort.
2. Too narrow a margin for error or deviation. Having only $20 in your bank account is far too close for comfort, if you ask me.
See also: close, comfort
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

too close for comfort

Cliché [for a misfortune or a threat] to be dangerously close. That car nearly hit me! That was too close for comfort. When I was in the hospital, I nearly died from pneumonia. Believe me, that was too close for comfort.
See also: close, comfort
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

too close for comfort

Also, too close to home. Dangerously nearby or accurate, as in That last shot was too close for comfort, or Their attacks on the speaker hit too close to home, and he left in a huff.
See also: close, comfort
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

too close for comfort

dangerously or uncomfortably near.
See also: close, comfort

too — for comfort

causing physical or mental unease by an excess of the specified quality.
1994 Janice Galloway Foreign Parts They were all too at peace with themselves, too untroubled for comfort.
See also: comfort
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

too close for ˈcomfort

so near that you become afraid or anxious: The exams are getting a bit too close for comfort.
See also: close, comfort
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • too close to call
  • close to (one's) heart
  • close to your heart
  • be close to the mark
  • be close to/near the mark
  • come to a close
  • close as two coats of paint
  • (as) close as two coats of paint
  • close enough to use the same toothpick
  • toothpick
References in periodicals archive
"When you look at our most likely multiyear forecast scenario, it has us good relative to covenants, but too close for comfort," Schauss said during the call.
It has also made everything feel just too close for comfort, taking the potential tension of juxtaposition and counterpoint to an uncomfortable extreme.
Wait, that might be too close for comfort in the war called "competition." But at least GM would finally get some world-class platforms, although I am sure customers would still leave the Chevrolet dealership saying, "You know, that still doesn't feel as good as the Camry, and I bet it will fall apart after a few years," even though the guts are the same.
But for most scientists, it's a little too close for comfort.
Sending him to outer space would still be too close for comfort when it comes to an evil beast like Excell.
Annika and Leigh find that living together and working together, after all this time apart, may be making them too close for comfort. Annika's jealousy of Leigh quickly becomes apparent.
But the operation's proximity to Lake Superior is too close for comfort for cottage owners who view the development as a potential environmental threat to the North Shore, an area rapidly gaining in popularity among sea kayakers.
For her that front porch is still too close for comfort. And yet it's the real sense of intimacy in Adams's photographs, even at their spookiest, that offers an image of the "mountain people" of Appalachia that we may not have seen before.
Wellstone, who broke a vow to term-limit himself because, he says, the balance of power in the Senate is too close for comfort, has launched a barn-burning populist campaign.
We glimpse a powerful Spaniard's alarm, three decades after Spaniards invaded the Inkas' central city, at natives who have come much too close for comfort. The ambivalence of the conqueror is clear: he wants the Andean leaders to be leaders, like him (otherwise Spain's indirect rule over the Andes wouldn't work), but he wants them to look like Andean leaders, not like him.
Move closer until you see them begin to narrow (this lets you know that you're too close for comfort).
CoStar's Florence also cut off Reckson Associates from its feeds, concerned the REIT's successful spin off venture capital firm, Front Line Capital's ownership position in RealtyIQ was too close for comfort.
With roles like the goofy Monroe Ficus on the hit '80s sitcom Too Close for Comfort, Jim J.
When the camera also takes in the front office, it can get too close for comfort. Codirector Hermann, after seeing Ballet at a special screening, was overheard asking Wiseman to delete the sizzling swear word she had used when castigating the presentations manager of the Metropolitan Opera House for not telling her the Kirov Ballet would duplicate ABT's repertoire when it played there.
if your initial calculations indicate that the break-even point for adding a salesperson is too close for comfort, you should take another look at how the additional volume may result in lower labor costs, and so increase the contribution percentage.