nearby - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English ner-bi, neer by, equivalent to near +‎ by.

nearby (comparative more nearby, superlative most nearby)

  1. Adjacent, near, close by.
    He stopped at a nearby store for some groceries.
    • 2024 December 26, Donna Ferguson, “‘Britain’s wildlife safari’: baby boom in Norfolk as seal colonies flourish”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Seals are flourishing about 50 miles farther south, too. In 2021, a group of grey seals established the first seal colony in nearby Suffolk and began breeding on a remote shingle beach at Orford Ness, now a National Trust site but once the location for cold war weapons-testing.

adjacent

nearby (comparative more nearby, superlative most nearby)

  1. Next to, close to.
    I'm glad my friends live nearby where I can visit them.

close to

nearby (plural nearbys)

  1. (finance) A futures contract, of a particular group, whose settlement date is the earliest.
    • 1984, Jack D. Schwager, A Complete Guide to the Futures Markets, page 496:
      In each of these markets the nearbys are almost invariably at a discount — a discount that tends to widen in bull markets and narrow in bear markets.
    • 1989, Raymond M. Leuthold, Joan C. Junkus, Jean E. Cordier, The Theory and Practice of Futures Markets, page 67:
      The deferred contract should be expected to rise, and buying the deferred while selling the nearby is then profitable.

Some British writers make the distinction between the adverbial near by, which is written as two words; and the adjectival nearby, which is written as one. In American English, the one-word spelling is standard for both forms. Cf. usage note in closeby.