Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Being near in space or time. See Usage Note at redundancy.
- adj. Being near in relationship: close relatives.
- adj. Bound by mutual interests, loyalties, or affections; intimate: close friends.
- adj. Having little or no space between elements or parts; tight and compact: a close weave.
- adj. Being near the surface; short: a close haircut.
- adj. Being on the brink of: close to tears.
- adj. Decided by a narrow margin; almost even: a close election.
- adj. Faithful to the original: a close copy.
- adj. Rigorous; thorough: close attention; close supervision.
- adj. Shut; closed.
- adj. Shut in; enclosed.
- adj. Confining or narrow; crowded: close quarters.
- adj. Fitting tightly: close garments.
- adj. Lacking fresh air; stuffy: a close room.
- adj. Confined to specific persons or groups: a close secret.
- adj. Strictly confined or guarded: kept under close custody.
- adj. Hidden from view; secluded.
- adj. Secretive; reticent: was close about her personal life.
- adj. Giving or spending with reluctance; stingy.
- adj. Not easily acquired; scarce: Money was close.
- adj. Linguistics Pronounced with the tongue near the palate, as the ee in meet. Used of vowels.
- adj. Marked by more rather than less punctuation, especially commas.
- v. To move (a door, for example) so that an opening or passage is covered or obstructed; shut.
- v. To bar access to: closed the road for repairs.
- v. To fill or stop up: closed the cracks with plaster.
- v. To stop the operations of permanently or temporarily: closed down the factory.
- v. To make unavailable for use: closed the area to development; closed the database to further changes.
- v. To bring to an end; terminate: close a letter; close a bank account.
- v. To bring together all the elements or parts of: Management closed ranks and ostracized the troublemaker.
- v. To join or unite; bring into contact: close a circuit.
- v. To draw or bind together the edges of: close a wound.
- v. Sports To modify (one's stance), as in baseball or golf, by turning the body so that the forward shoulder and foot are closer to the intended point of impact with the ball.
- v. To complete the final details or negotiations on: close a deal.
- v. Archaic To enclose on all sides.
- v. To become shut: The door closed quietly.
- v. To come to an end; finish: The book closes on a hopeful note.
- v. To reach an agreement; come to terms.
- v. To cease operation: The shop closes at six.
- v. To be priced or listed at a specified amount when trading ends: Stocks closed higher on Monday.
- v. To engage at close quarters: closed with the enemy.
- v. To draw near: The orbiter closed with the space station in preparation for docking.
- v. To come together: My arms closed around the little child.
- v. Baseball To finish a game by protecting a lead. Used of relief pitchers.
- n. The act of closing.
- n. A conclusion; a finish: The meeting came to a close.
- n. Music The concluding part of a phrase or theme; a cadence.
- n. An enclosed place, especially land surrounding or beside a cathedral or other building.
- n. Chiefly British A narrow way or alley.
- n. Archaic A fight at close quarters.
- adv. In a close position or manner; closely: stayed close together.
- close in To seem to be gathering in on all sides: The problems closed in.
- close in To advance on a target so as to block escape: The police closed in on the sniper.
- close in To surround so as to make unusable: The airport was closed in by fog.
- close out To dispose of (a line of merchandise) at reduced prices.
- close out To terminate, as by selling: close out a business.
- idiom. close to home So as to affect one's feelings or interests: Her comment hit close to home.
- idiom. close to the wind Nautical At a close angle into the direction from which the wind is blowing: sailing close to the wind.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To inclose; shut in; surround; comprise.
- To make close; bring together the parts of, especially so as to form a complete inclosure, or to prevent ingress or egress; shut; bring together: as, to close one's mouth; to close a door or a room; to close a book.
- To stop (up); fill (up); repair a gap, opening, or fracture in; unite; consolidate: often followed by up: as, to close an aperture or a room; to close or close up the ranks of troops.
- To end; finish; conclude; complete; bring to a period: as, to close a bargain or contract; to close a lecture.
- To draw near to; approach; close with (which see, under II.).
- In shoemaking, to sew or stitch together (the parts of the upper).
- To settle up an account.
- To come together, either literally or figuratively; fall; draw; gather around, as a curtain or a fog: often followed by on or upon: as, the shades of night close upon us.
- To end; terminate or come to a period: as, the debate closed at six o'clock.
- To engage in close encounter, or in a hand-to-hand fight; grapple; come to close quarters.
- In the game of sixty-six, to turn down the trump-card before the pack is exhausted, so that no further drawing can be done.
- In fencing, to get near enough to touch by making a step forward without deranging the position of the body.
- To come to an agreement with: as, to close with a person on certain terms.
- See II., 3.
- To harmonize; agree.
- n. The manner of shutting; junction; coming together.
- n. Conclusion; termination; end: as, the close of life; the close of deliberations.
- n. In music, the conclusion of a strain or of a musical period or passage; a cadence.
- n. A grapple, as in wrestling.
- Completely inclosing; brought together so as to leave no opening; having all openings covered or drawn together; confined; having no vent: as, a close box; a close vizor.
- Narrowly confined; pent up; imprisoned; strictly watched: as, a close prisoner.
- Retired; secluded; hidden.
- Kept secret; private; secret.
- Having the habit of secrecy or a disposition to keep secrets; secretive; reticent.
- Having an appearance of concealment; expressive of secretiveness or reticence.
- Having little openness, space, or breadth; contracted; narrow; confined: as, a close alley.
- Stagnant; without motion or ventilation; difficult to breathe; oppressive: said of the air or weather, and of a room the air in which is in this condition.
- Near together in space or time; near to; in contact or nearly so; adjoining: as, a close row of trees; to follow in close succession.
- Having the parts near each other or separated by only a small interval; condensed: as, the writing is too close. Compact; dense: as, timber of close texture or very close in the grain; a close texture in cloth.
- Near, in a figurative sense. Intimate; trusted: as, a close friend.
- Resting upon some strong uniting feeling, as love, self-interest, honor, etc.; strong; firm: as, a close union of individuals or of nations.
- Undeviating; not wandering. Not deviating from the object to which one's mind or thoughts are directed, or from the subject under consideration: as, to give close attention; a close observer.
- Strictly logical: as, close reasoning.
- Stingy; niggardly; penurious.
- Scarce; difficult to get: as, money is close.
- Tightly or closely; so as to leave no opening: as, shut the blinds close.
- In strict confinement.
- In concealment; in hiding; in secret; secretly.
- Near in space or time; in contact, or nearly touching: as, to follow close behind one.
- n. An inclosed place; any place surrounded by a fence, wall, or hedge.
- n. A piece of land held as private property, whether actually inclosed or not: in the common law of pleading, technically used of any interest (whether temporary or permanent, or even only in profits) in the soil, exclusive of other persons, such as entitles him who holds it to maintain an action of trespass against an invader.
- n. Specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or an abbey; a minster-yard.
- n. A narrow passage or entrance, such as leads from a main street to the stair of a building containing several tenements; the entry to a court; a narrow lane leading from a street: as, a close in Marylebone.
- In cribbage, noting cards which are near together, so that sequences are possible, such as the 5 and 7.
- Formed or pronounced with a partial closing of the lips: as, a close vowel.
Wiktionary
- v. To obstruct (an opening).
- v. To move so that an opening is closed.
- v. To put an end to.
- v. To make (e.g. a gap) smaller.
- v. surveying To have a vector sum of 0; that is, to form a closed polygon.
- v. marketing To make a sale.
- v. baseball, pitching To make the final outs, usually three, of a game.
- v. computing To terminate a computer program or a window or file thereof.
- n. An end of something.
- adj. Closed, shut.
- adj. At a little distance; near.
- adj. Intimate; well-loved.
- adj. Ireland, England, Scotland, weather hot, humid, with no wind.
- adj. linguistics, phonetics, of a vowel articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate
- n. An enclosed field.
- n. UK A street that ends in a dead end.
- n. Scotland A very narrow alley between two buildings, often overhung by one of the buildings above the ground floor.
- n. A cathedral close.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To stop, or fill up, as an opening; to shut.
- v. To bring together the parts of; to consolidate.
- v. To bring to an end or period; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to end; to consummate.
- v. To come or gather around; to inclose; to encompass; to confine.
- v. To come together; to unite or coalesce, as the parts of a wound, or parts separated.
- v. To end, terminate, or come to a period.
- v. To grapple; to engage in hand-to-hand fight.
- n. obsolete The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction.
- n. Conclusion; cessation; ending; end.
- n. A grapple in wrestling.
- n. The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence.
- n. A double bar marking the end.
- n. An inclosed place; especially, a small field or piece of land surrounded by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey.
- n. engraving A narrow passage leading from a street to a court, and the houses within.
- n. (Law) The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not inclosed.
- adj. Shut fast; closed; tight.
- adj. Narrow; confined.
- adj. Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude; -- said of the air, weather, etc.
- adj. Strictly confined; carefully quarded.
- adj. Out of the way observation; secluded; secret; hidden.
- adj. Disposed to keep secrets; secretive; reticent.
- adj. Having the parts near each other; dense; solid; compact; as applied to bodies; viscous; tenacious; not volatile, as applied to liquids.
- adj. Concise; to the point.
- adj. Adjoining; near; either in space; time, or thought; -- often followed by
to . - adj. Short.
- adj. Intimate; familiar; confidential.
- adj. Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced.
- adj. Difficult to obtain.
- adj. Parsimonious; stingy.
- adj. Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact; strict.
- adj. Accurate; careful; precise; also, attentive; undeviating; strict; not wandering.
- adj. (Phon.) Uttered with a relatively contracted opening of the mouth, as certain sounds of
e ando in French, Italian, and German; -- opposed toopen . - adv. In a close manner.
- adv. obsolete Secretly; darkly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of a contest or contestants) evenly matched
- v. come to a close
- n. the last section of a communication
- adj. used of hair or haircuts
- v. cause a window or an application to disappear on a computer desktop
- adj. marked by fidelity to an original
- adj. fitting closely but comfortably
- v. become closed
- adv. near in time or place or relationship
- v. finish or terminate (meetings, speeches, etc.)
- adj. rigorously attentive; strict and thorough
- adj. strictly confined or guarded
- v. unite or bring into contact or bring together the edges of
- n. the concluding part of any performance
- adj. at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other
- adj. inclined to secrecy or reticence about divulging information
- v. move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut
- v. change one's body stance so that the forward shoulder and foot are closer to the intended point of impact
- adj. not far distant in time or space or degree or circumstances
- v. cease to operate or cause to cease operating
- v. bar access to
- v. come together, as if in an embrace
- v. draw near
- v. engage at close quarters
- v. be priced or listed when trading stops
- n. the temporal end; the concluding time
- adj. lacking fresh air
- adj. crowded.
- v. complete a business deal, negotiation, or an agreement
- adj. giving or spending with reluctance
- adj. close in relevance or relationship
- adj. of textiles
- v. finish a game in baseball by protecting a lead
- adj. confined to specific persons
- adv. in an attentive manner
- v. bring together all the elements or parts of
- v. fill or stop up
Etymologies
- From French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claudo. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English clos, closed, from Old French, from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere, to close. V., from Middle English closen, from Old French clore, clos-, from Latin claudere. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“While "The Devil Inside" remains my favorite GRENDEL story-arc, "God and the Devil" is a close *close* second.”
Comics You Should Own – Grendel #24-33 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“The notes sung by the voices are usually close to each other in pitch, resulting in tight chords, or close harmony.”
“The soldiers being close together, -- in _close order_, -- they form a compact body that is easily managed, and consequently that lends itself well to teaching the soldier habits of attention, precision, team-work and instant obedience to the voice of his commander.”
“And she said I must tell you she will be with you, -- close -- _close_ to you -- in heart and thought, until the day shall come when she can hold you in her arms.”
“(i don't even want to think about how close you were) (well, as opposed to how *close* you are in texas...)”
“HPFacebookVoteV2. init (366998, 'Weekend Box Office Review: Cedric Diggory Crushes Harry Potter -- Twilight Saga: New Moon Opens With $142 Million', 'If you\'re a Batman fan or a general guy-centric geek, you\'re probably thinking \ "That was close ... too close\".”
“And -- oh, please let me think you are close -- _close_ -- beside me all the time! ”
“The term 'close reading' is one you pick up in a liberal arts education, but you don't really understand it until you meet someone who can do it.”
“Mr. Swanson glanced between them, wearing an expression close to alarm.”
“His party still struggling against the term close, the Whigs grew provoked, and resolved he should receive his sentence on his knees at the bar.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘close’.
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webdev
random webdev lingo used primarily in computer programming.
( open list, randomness, technical jargon, geek speak )
more:
ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 439 more... -
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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X Up and X Down
Words that form common phrases (or compound words) when followed by the word "up", and also when followed by the word "down".
For example, "show" forms "show up" and "showdown".show, put, break, back, cut, dress, get, hold, let, set, throw, turn and 81 more...
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Stoppage
Stop words.
stop, freeze, hault, quit, nevermore, end, finish, complete, done, final, yield, pause and 14 more...
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words classifiable in 4 different way...
words classifiable in 4 different ways as a noun, verb, adj and adv
best, better, bitter, broadside, clean, clear, close, cod, collect, counter, crisscross, damn and 39 more...
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Yo-yo words
Verbs you can both "up" and "down".
Note: I prefer examples where the two senses aren't perfect opposites, e.g. warm up / warm down.dress, hork, trade, wash, scrub, brush, knock, touch, put, shoot, run, throw and 36 more...
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Autantonyms
Words that are the opposites of themselves; each of the words in the list below has at least two definitions of which one is the complete contrary of the other.
fast, buckle, weather, out, weedy, overlook, cleave, let, clip, quite, sanction, bolt and 19 more...
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no little thing
it bothers me when i hear someone who have experienced something life changing use the phrase: now i appreciate the little things. I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY LITTLE THINGS. everything is EXTRAOR...
letters, living, understand, narrow, behavior, personal, need, meant, untamed, world, soldier, 'cause and 241 more...
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Autantonyms
Words with mutually exclusive double meanings. Also, here are some:
QUASI-AUTANTONYMS: slow up/slow down; bar/debar; bone/debone; burn up/burn down; fat chance/slim chance; fill in/fil...clip, cleave, sanction, handicap, fast, jibe, secrete, aloha, bimonthly, bolt, cheerio, commencement and 139 more...
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ShuckFinn's Words
abecedarian, conflate, mondegreen, whit, truculent, downright, pugnacious, effluvium, canker, inveigle, obfuscate, melancholy and 227 more...
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Bi-sonics
Allophonic homographs. Words that are pronounced at least 2 ways, having different senses. 'august' and 'polish' are less ambiguous since capitalization make the correct pronunciation clear (at lea...
sow, row, dove, polish, precedent, rewet, lower, read, bass, patent, primer, tear and 102 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Simche's random word list
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Allographic Homophones
Words that can be pronounced identically but are spelled differently. I've started with unusual or extensive sets. In some of these sets, no one speaker would pronounce them all the same. I've trie...
air, are, ayr, ayre, e'er, ere, err, eyre, heir, apatite, appetite, picnic and 226 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for close.

ruzuzu See near. Sep 4, 2010
oroboros Contronymic in the sense: near vs. make inaccessible. Jan 27, 2007