Dictionary

close up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /kləʊzˈʌp/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Dissimilated from Middle English upclosen (“to close up, stop up, seal”).

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To close (remove a gap) completely or fully.
   • Some flowers close up at night to stay protected from the cold.
2. (intransitive) To move nearer together so that a gap is removed.
   • The crowd closed up and I couldn't get through to the train.
3. (transitive) To enclose, confine.
   • In Sanʿa the Jews have been separated from the Mohammedan population for the last three hundred years, and closed up in a Ghetto apart from the main town. 1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 369:
4. (ambitransitive) To shut a building or a business for a period of time.
   • We finally managed to close up the shop for the night at about 10 o'clock.
   • The car factory has closed up for the August holidays.
5. (intransitive) Of a cut or other wound: To heal.
   • With stitches, the cut should close up in a week to ten days.
6. (intransitive) To become less 'open' or communicative; to shrink back.
   • to close up emotionally
7. (Australia, intransitive, slang) To stop talking.

Forms

Deriveds

close up shop

Synonyms

close

Translations (16)

pl zamykać (to shut for a period of time) · nb stenge (to shut for a period of time) · fi sulkea (to shut for a period of time) · pl zewrzeć się (to move closer together) · pl goić się (of a wound, to heal) · pl zwierać się (to move closer together) · ota یاقینلاشمق (to move closer together) · pl zrosnąć się (of a wound, to heal) · pl zagoić się (of a wound, to heal) · fi tiivistyä (to move closer together) · nb gro (of a wound, to heal) · nb holde stengt (to shut for a period of time) · fi tiivistää (to move closer together) · pl zamknąć (to shut for a period of time) · pl zrastać się (of a wound, to heal) · fi umpeutua (of a wound, to heal)