не за горами

• НЕ ЗА ГОРАМИ coll

[PrepP; Invar; subj-compl with copula]

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1. [subj: concr, collect, or human]

⇒ some place (organization, person) is a short distance (from somewhere), nearby:

- not (very <too, that, so>) far away.

2. [subj: abstr]

⇒ (of an event or the time of an event) sth. will occur soon, in the near future:

- (sth.) is not (too <very>) far away <off>;

- (sth.) will happen any day now;

- (sth.) is close at hand;

- [in limited contexts] (sth.) is getting closer every day.

     ♦ ...Он [Мандельштам] уже знал, что над ним нависла смертельная опасность и гибель не за горами (Мандельштам 2). ...Не [Mandelstam] knew by now that he was in mortal danger and that his end was not far away (2a).

     ♦ Снова, как и в прошлом году в это время, стало казаться, что победа не за горами (Гладков 1). Again-as at the same time the previous year-it was beginning to seem that victory was not far off (1a).

     ♦ Пролетарская революция в тылу у противника не за горами (Максимов 2.) "Any day now a proletarian revolution will break out on the enemy's home front" (2a).

     ♦ "Вы, товарищ Чонкин, по политподготовке отстаёте от большинства других бойцов... А ведь не за горами инспекторская поверка. С чем вы к ней придёте?" (Войнович 2). "In political training, you, Comrade Chonkin, are lagging far behind most of the rest of the men. ...The check on political training is getting closer every day and what are you going to have to show when it comes?" (2a).