packed like sardines

adj
/pækt laɪk sɑːˈdiːnz/UK/pækt laɪk sɑɹˈdinz/US

Etymology

Referring to sardines packed closely together in a tin (or can).

Definitions

  1. Densely packed

    Densely packed; tightly squeezed together; crammed.

    • I'm pretty claustrophobic, so I didn't wanna hop in the elevator with them all packed like sardines in there.
    • We're already packed in like sardines But we're stopping to pick up more, look out
    • Passengers are no longer "willing to be packed into trains like sardines", says London TravelWatch.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for packed like sardines. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA