Striking distance?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Striking distance?

And vice versa.

So long as your opponent is beyond reach, or out of range, you can’t hit them effectively.

Hence, by extension, to be within striking distance is to be close to the target or goal you want to achieve.

In our example from the top, “you” like the sea, apparently. Therefore, “you” should be happy with spending the holiday on “this island”. With its 80 beaches, you’ll always feel like you’re near the sea, which is the object of your fancies.

In other words, you can make a splash any time.

Anyways, “striking distance” is originally a military term, descriptive of the distance at which a soldier is sufficiently near to be able to attack an enemy, but I think our boxing analogies more than suffice to illustrate the point.

Alright, here are media examples of this useful idiom:

1. It was an advance every bit as rapid and chaotic as the retreat two weeks earlier.

Crammed into pickups, cars and buses, Libya's army of teachers, grocers and students raced westwards on Sunday in a helter skelter advance toward Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s heartland.

They retook Brega, Uqayla, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad – oil towns they had been driven out of under intense artillery bombardment – without having to fight a battle. Government forces simply turned tail and fled. By the end of the day the rebels were in striking distance of Sirte, Col Gaddafi’s hometown and power base.