I had lain, therefore, all that time, cheek by jowl with Blackbeard himself, with only a thin shell of tinder wood to keep him from me, and now had thrust my hand into his coffin and plucked away his beard.
If you say that people or things are cheek by jowl with each other, you are indicating that they are very close to each other. She and her family have to live cheek by jowl with these people. the skin that covers your lower jaw on either side of your face