close
Meanings
- To remove or block an opening, gap or passage through.
- To move a thing, or part of a thing, nearer to another so that the gap or opening between the two is removed.
- To obstruct or block.
- To become denser or more crowded with objects.
- To make or become unreceptive.
- To move to a position preventing fluid from flowing.
- To move to a position allowing electricity to flow.
- To grapple; to engage in close combat.
- To angle (a club, bat or other hitting implement) downwards and/or (for a right-hander) anticlockwise of straight.
- To finish.
- To end or conclude.
- To finish; to come to an end.
- An end or conclusion.
- The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction.
- The point at the end of a sales pitch when the consumer is asked to buy.
- A grapple in wrestling.
- The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence.
- A double bar marking the end.
- The time when check-in staff will no longer accept passengers for a flight.
- Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
- At little distance; near in space or time.
- Almost, but not quite (getting to an answer, goal, or other state); near.
- Almost resulting in disaster.
- Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced; almost exactly matching.
- Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact or nearly so.
- Intimate or immediate in personal relationship.
- Involving a tight connection; involving frequent communication, shared or cooperative activity, etc.
- Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
- Physically narrow or confined.
- Tight, with little space separating components or elements.
- Strictly confined; carefully guarded.
- In a close manner (limited contexts; more often closely).
- So as to leave or create little distance or space between objects.
- Carefully, in detail.
- In combination (sometimes potentially ambiguous between adverb and adjective).
- An enclosed field, especially a field enclosed around a (usually religious) building.
- A street that ends in a dead end.
- A very narrow alley between two buildings, often overhung by one of the buildings above the ground floor.
- The common staircase in a tenement.
- A cathedral close.
- The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not enclosed
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English closen (“to close, enclose”), partly continuing (in altered form) earlier Middle English clusen (“to close”) from Old English clȳsan (“to close, shut”); compare beclose, foreclose, etc.), and partly derived from Middle English clos (“close, shut up, confined, secret”, adjective), from Old French clos (“close, confined”, adjective), from Latin clausus (“shut up”, past participle), from claudō (“to bar, block, close, enclose, bring an end to, confine”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂w- (“key, hook, nail”), related to Latin clāvis (“key, deadbolt, bar”), clāvus (“nail, peg”), claustrum (“bar, bolt, barrier”), claustra (“dam, wall, barricade, stronghold”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κλείω (kleíō), κλείς (kleís, “bar, bolt, key”), Russian заключи́ть (zaključítʹ) (via ключ (ključ)), German schließen (“to close, conclude, lock”), Dutch sluiten (“to close, conclude, lock”). Partially replaced Old English lūcan (“to close, lock, enclose”), (whence English lock). Doublet of clause.