Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
closed book en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(idiomatic) A person or thing that cannot be easily understood; someone or something incomprehensible or puzzling.
Like the activities of British Railways Research Department, developing, testing and modifying diesel locomotives before their acceptance for service is another behind-the-scenes activity which is a closed book to most passengers and to many railwaymen.
1962 April, R. K. Evans, “The Acceptance Testing of Diesel Locomotives”, in Modern Railways, page 266:Her courteous, sedate, inexorable husband, whose will she could not bend, whom she could not cajole, whose mind was a closed book to her — a book which had lain by her hand for three years, which she had never had the curiosity to open!
1906, Mary Cholmondeley, Prisoners: Fast Bound in Misery and Iron:
Forms
Antonyms
open book
Relateds
enigma · mystery · secret