English
close
see also: Close
Pronunciation Verb

close (closes, present participle closing; past and past participle closed)

  1. (physical) To remove a gap.
    1. To obstruct (an opening).
    2. To move so that an opening is closed.
      Close the door behind you when you leave.
      Jim was listening to headphones with his eyes closed.
      • What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?
      • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
        If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.
    3. To make (e.g. a gap) smaller.
      The runner in second place is closing the gap on the leader.
      to close the ranks of an army
    4. To grapple; to engage in close combat.
      • They boldly closed in a hand-to-hand contest.
  2. (social) To finish, to terminate.
    1. To put an end to; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to consummate.
      close the session;   to close a bargain;   to close a course of instruction
      • One frugal supper did our studies close.
    2. To come to an end.
      The debate closed at six o'clock.
    3. (marketing) To make a sale.
    4. (baseball, pitching) To make the final outs, usually three, of a game.
      He has closed the last two games for his team.
    5. (figurative, computing) To terminate an application, window, file or database connection, etc.
  3. To come or gather around; to enclose; to encompass; to confine.
    • Bible, Book of Jonah ii. 5
      The depth closed me round about.
    • But now Thou dost Thyself immure and close / In some one corner of a feeble heart; / Where yet both Sinne and Satan, Thy old foes, / Do pinch and straiten Thee, and use much art / To gain Thy thirds' and little part.
  4. (surveying) To have a vector sum of 0; that is, to form a closed polygon.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

close (plural closes)

  1. An end or conclusion.
    We owe them our thanks for bringing the project to a successful close.
    • 1878, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica,_Ninth_Edition/Francis_Atterbury Francis Atterbury]”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition:
      His long and troubled life was drawing to a close.
  2. The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction.
    • The doors of plank were; their close exquisite.
  3. A grapple in wrestling.
  4. (music) The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence.
    • At every close she made, the attending throng / Replied, and bore the burden of the song.
  5. (music) A double bar marking the end.
  6. (aviation, travel) The time when checkin staff will no longer accept passengers for a flight.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Pronunciation Adjective

close (comparative closer, superlative closest)

  1. (now, rare) Closed, shut.
    • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew chapter 8:
      There is nothinge so close, that shall not be openned, and nothinge so hyd that shall not be knowen.
    • From a close bower this dainty music flowed.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, chapter 1:
      I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.
  2. Narrow; confined.
    a close alley; close quarters
    • 1836 March – 1837 October​, Charles Dickens, chapter 41, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, OCLC 28228280 ↗:
      a close prison
  3. At a little distance; near.
    Is your house close?
  4. Intimate; well-loved.
    He is a close friend.
    1. (legal) Of a corporation or other business entity, closely held.
  5. Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude.
    • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries
      If the rooms be low-roofed, or full of windows and doors, the one maketh the air close, [...] and the other maketh it exceeding unequal.
  6. (Ireland, England, Scotland, weather) Hot, humid, with no wind.
  7. (linguistics, phonetics, of a vowel) Articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate.
  8. Strictly confined; carefully guarded.
    a close prisoner
  9. (obsolete) Out of the way of observation; secluded; secret; hidden.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 1 Chronicles 12:1 ↗:
      He yet kept himself close because of Saul.
    • her close intent
  10. Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced.
    a close contest
  11. Short.
    to cut grass or hair close
  12. (archaic) Dense; solid; compact.
    • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
      The golden globe being put into a press, [...] the water made itself way through the pores of that very close metal.
  13. (archaic) Concise; to the point.
    close reasoning
    • 1690, John Dryden, Translations (Preface)
      Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass.
  14. (dated) Difficult to obtain.
    Money is close.
  15. (dated) Parsimonious; stingy.
    • 1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 927360557 ↗, stanza XVII, page 57 ↗:
      Yet were these Florentines as self-retired / In hungry pride and gainful cowardice, / As two close Hebrews in that land inspired, / Paled in and vineyarded from beggar-spies; [...]
    • 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales, Volume I: "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe":
      [...] he was a crusty old fellow, as close as a vice.
    • 1852-1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House
      Though a hard-grained man, close, dry, and silent, he can enjoy old wine with the best. He has a priceless bin of port in some artful cellar under the Fields, which is one of his many secrets.
  16. Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact.
    a close translation
  17. Accurate; careful; precise; also, attentive; undeviating; strict.
    The patient was kept under close observation.
  18. Marked, evident.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Noun

close (plural closes)

  1. (now, rare) An enclosed field.
  2. (chiefly British) A street that ends in a dead end.
  3. (Scotland) A very narrow alley between two buildings, often overhung by one of the buildings above the ground floor.
  4. (Scotland) The common staircase in a tenement.
  5. A cathedral close.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
  6. (legal) The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not enclosed.
Synonyms Translations
Close
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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