close
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: klōz
ipa: /kləʊz/
enpr: klōz
ipa: /kloʊz/
rhymes: -əʊz
homophone: cloze
homophone: clothes stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
enpr: klōs
ipa: /kləʊs/
ipa: /kloʊs/
rhymes: -əʊs
enpr: klōz
ipa: /kləʊz/
enpr: klōz
ipa: /kloʊz/
rhymes: -əʊz
homophone: cloze
homophone: clothes stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: closer
form: closest
Etymology: Borrowed from French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claudō.
Senses: examples: text: Is your house close?
text: Christmas is getting close.
text: […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
At little distance; near in space or time.
examples: text: No, but you were close.
text: We were so close to winning!
text: She wasn't quite in tears but she was close.
text: Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.
ref: 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Almost, but not quite (getting to an answer, goal, or other state); near.
examples: text: Phew! That was close!
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Almost resulting in disaster.
raw_tags: in particular
examples: text: Their ages are quite close.
text: His face is a close fit with the artist's impression.
text: It was a close contest.
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced; almost exactly matching.
examples: text: a close translation; a close copy
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact or nearly so.
examples: text: He is a close friend.
text: My brother and I were close when we were younger, but not so much now.
text: For Christmas we just had a few close relatives round.
text: a close colleague; a close ally
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Intimate or immediate in personal relationship.
examples: text: We have a close affiliation with the college.
text: I keep in close contact with my former colleagues.
glosses: Having little difference or distance in place, position, or abstractly; see also close to.
Involving a tight connection; involving frequent communication, shared or cooperative activity, etc.
examples: text: a close alley; close quarters; close confines
text: [...] he took to wondering what possible temptation could have induced a dingy-looking fly that was crawling over his pantaloons, to come into a close prison, when he had the choice of so many airy situations [...]
ref: 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 41, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Physically narrow or confined.
qualifier: archaic outside certain phrases
examples: text: For this job it's best to use wood with a close grain.
text: These trousers are a close fit.
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Tight, with little space separating components or elements.
examples: text: He was captured and kept a close prisoner.
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Strictly confined; carefully guarded.
examples: text: The pregnancy was a close secret.
text: His lawyers have so far kept this information close.
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Tightly restricted in availability.
topics: law
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Of a corporation or other business entity, closely held.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: 1907, Algernon Blackwood, The Dance of Death …the artificial light and close air of his high office stool …
text: He sighed drowsily. The atmosphere of the auction room was close; you weren't allowed to smoke; and altogether he was beginning to regret that he had come.
ref: 1921, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter X, in Indiscretions of Archie:
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
weather
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Hot, humid, with no wind.
examples: text: The golden globe being put into a press, [...] the water made itself way through the pores of that very close metal.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Compressed, restricted, constrained, etc.
Dense; solid; compact.
examples: text: The patient was kept under close observation.
text: Keep a close eye on him.
text: I must acknowledge that hitherto I have discover’d no other way to keep our Thoughts cloſe to their Buſineſs, but the endeavouring as much as we can, and by frequent Attention and Application, getting the habit of Attention and Application.
ref: a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, page 90:
glosses: Rigorous, careful, etc.
Attentive; undeviating; strict.
examples: text: This issue merits close examination.
text: Unfortunately, on close reading of the Ts and Cs, it appears that your insurance does not cover this.
glosses: Rigorous, careful, etc.
Carefully done, detailed.
glosses: Rigorous, careful, etc.
Accurate; precise.
examples: text: to cut grass or hair close
glosses: Short.
examples: text: There is nothinge so close, that shall not be openned, and nothinge so hyd that shall not be knowen.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew viij:
text: As the alchymists were assiduous workmen—as they mixed all the metals, salts, &c... and subjected such mixtures to the action of heat in close vessels, their labours were occasionally repaid by the discovery of new substances...
ref: 1830, Thomas Thomson (chemist), The History of Chemistry, volume 1, pages 30–31:
text: 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.
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: Closed, shut.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
glosses: Articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate.
raw_tags: of a vowel
examples: text: Crest, a cockatrice, wings close, vert, combed and wattled gu.
ref: 1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:
text: Sable, an eagle close or - ROPER, Derby. / Sable, a chevron ermine between three eagles close argent - GAMES, Leicester, granted 1614. / Sable a chevron between three eagles close argent - JERVOISE.
ref: 1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 215:
text: Arms : Azure, a chevron ermine between three cross - crosslets fitchy argent. Crest : An eagle close argent, ducally gorged.
ref: 1902, Lincoln's Inn (London, England), The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, page 458:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: With its wings at its side, closed, held near to its body (typically also statant); (of wings) in this posture.
raw_tags: of a bird
examples: text: Money is close.
text: Some of these parties have not paid their last payment, because money was close last fall.
ref: 1886, “Leases of Lands in the Indian Territory”, in United States Congressional Serial Set, volume 2362, page 184:
text: We are told out West that the reason money is so close now is because so large an amount has been invested in real estate. I cannot understand why that would make any difference if that money has been sent from one section of the country into another for the purpose of buying real estate. Why should it make any difference as to money being close? We are told in the East large amounts have been invested in the large manufacturing plants, such as the steel plants, etc. but if the money has been invested there it has simply changed hands, and why should that make any difference?
ref: 1903, Gunton's Magazine of American Economics and Political Science, page 249:
text: But there is reason underlying this confusion: time as well as money is close these days and a small wardrobe of hats can be very boring.
ref: 1965, Country Life - Volume 137, page 326:
glosses: Difficult to obtain.
examples: text: 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; [...]
ref: 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: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XVII, page 57:
text: [...] he was a crusty old fellow, as close as a vice.
ref: 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe”, in Twice-Told Tales, volume I:
text: 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.
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: Parsimonious; stingy.
examples: text: He yet kept himself close because of Saul.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Chronicles 12:1:
text: her close intent
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 57:
glosses: Out of the way of observation; secluded; secret; hidden.
examples: text: close reasoning
text: Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass.
ref: 1690, John Dryden, Translations (Preface)
glosses: Concise; to the point.
glosses: Marked, evident.
Synonyms: sense: at little distance
word: close by
word: near
word: nearby
word: intimate
sense: hot, humid
word: muggy
word: oppressive
word: muggy
sense: articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate
word: high
sense: dense, solid, compact
word: compact
Hyponyms: this close
thisclose
ultra-close
Derived terms: close as wax
close at hand
close-bodied
close borough
close, but no cigar
close call
close captioning
close combat
close-coupled
close-cropped
close encounter
close enough
close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades
close fertilization
close-fights
close-fisted
close-fitting
closehanded
close-hauled
close helm
close helmet
closeish
close-knit
closely
close-mid
close-minded
closeness
close one
close only counts in horseshoes
close only counts in horseshoes and darts
close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
close on the heels of
close order
close-packed
close-packing
close protection
close-quarter
close quarter
close quarters
close range
close-range
close reach
close reading
close-reefed
closereefed
close-run
close-serried
close-set
close shave
closestool
close thing
close-tiled
close to
close-toed
close together
close to home
close-tongued
close to one's heart
close to one's vest
close to someone's heart
close to the bone
close to the metal
close to the vest
close to the wind
close-up
close-winded
close with a buck
couple-close
cut it close
fly too close to the sun
hit too close to home
in close neighbourhood
keep a close watch
keep one's cards close to one's chest
nonclose
play it close to the hip
sail close to the wind
soft-close
subclose
this close
too close for comfort
too close to call
too close to the sun
ultraclose
up close