"near thing" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "near things",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "near thing (plural near things)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1943 May and June, Chas. S. Lake, “Some Continental Travel Experiences (1922-1939)—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 143",
          "text": "The Jylland only missed running down a schooner by a few yards in the fog; it was a near thing—near enough, in fact, to allow of some shouted remarks between those on the bridge of the motorship and the man at the wheel of the schooner to be clearly heard.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A close call, a close shave, a close thing"
      ],
      "id": "en-near_thing-en-noun-mLTwsQzZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "close call",
          "close call"
        ],
        [
          "close shave",
          "close shave"
        ],
        [
          "close thing",
          "close thing"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "near thing"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "near things",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "near thing (plural near things)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1943 May and June, Chas. S. Lake, “Some Continental Travel Experiences (1922-1939)—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 143",
          "text": "The Jylland only missed running down a schooner by a few yards in the fog; it was a near thing—near enough, in fact, to allow of some shouted remarks between those on the bridge of the motorship and the man at the wheel of the schooner to be clearly heard.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A close call, a close shave, a close thing"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "close call",
          "close call"
        ],
        [
          "close shave",
          "close shave"
        ],
        [
          "close thing",
          "close thing"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "near thing"
}