joined at the hip
7
6.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
inseparables
- Since childhood, Emily and Sarah have been joined at the hip, spending every weekend together.
- twins joined at the hip
- Siamese twins joined at the hip
- guys joined at the hip
So they both felt that as, as Tom Friedman said in one of his columns, that they were joined at the hip in a mutually interdependent relationship.
- So they both felt that as, as Tom Friedman said in one of his columns, that they were joined at the hip in a mutually interdependent relationship.
Examples
-
They are so close that they are often described as being joined at the hip, always seen together at events.
-
We used to be joined at the hip.
-
You two are joined at the hip.
-
We were born 6 days apart, lived down the street from each other, and were joined at the hip for years.
Blog text (20) -
Lately, he and Olivia seem to be joined at the hip.
-
And they're so close now, they're literally joined at the hip.
-
While Nielsen is a senior and Zimmerman is just a sophomore on the Washington track and field team, the pair's careers seem joined at the hip.
Blog text (19) -
My brother and I are joined at the hip; we do everything together, from studying to playing video games.
Synonyms
∞
1.3
Having a strong friendly relationship with someone
160
4.4
Having a very close personal relationship, sometimes sexual
54
3.2
People or groups work closely together to reach the same goal
22
3.9
A group of people with strong caring ties who support each other
1
3.7
A group of people who help and support each other
Connected closely to people or a place by strong feelings
People who are very close and share secrets and feelings
Feeling close to someone or something
In a close relationship with other people or groups
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
joined + at + the + hip
The components 'joined' (linked) + 'at the hip' (a specific bodily location indicating close physical contact) transparently suggest being attached to each other; the metaphorical extension to being inseparable or always together is a straightforward inference for learners who know the words. This locative+participial composition is a common, easily motivated image across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will very likely grasp the idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
The idiom joined at the hip comes from the image of two people literally joined at the hip, like conjoined twins who cannot move apart, so they are always together. That's why it now means 'extremely close' or 'inseparable', spending a great deal of time together.