The end is near

“The end is near” means that the end of something, like the end of someone’s life or the end of the world, is close. This phrase is usually used in an ominous way. At 12:30 in the afternoon, Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying that doctors were “concerned for the Queen’s health.” In this guarded language of official palace communications, this meant “the end was near,” or the Queen was close to death. After the family had to check the father into the hospital, they knew the “end was near.”