close up

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close up

/kləʊzˈʌp/

Rhymes with -ʌp

Where it comes from

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

verb closes up · closing up · closed up

intransitive To close (remove a gap) completely or fully. Some flowers close up at night to stay protected from the cold.
intransitive To move nearer together so that a gap is removed. The crowd closed up and I couldn't get through to the train.
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.
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.
Similar: close
intransitive Of a cut or other wound: To heal. With stitches, the cut should close up in a week to ten days.
intransitive To become less 'open' or communicative; to shrink back. to close up emotionally
Australia, intransitive, slang To stop talking.

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Cite this

MLA

"close up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/close%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

close up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/close%20up

Chicago

"close up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/close%20up.

BibTeX

@misc{close_up_2026,
  title = {close up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/close%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}