CLOSE UP

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does close up mean? 

• CLOSE UP (verb)
  The verb CLOSE UP has 4 senses:

1. cease to operate or cause to cease operating

2. block passage through

3. unite or bring into contact or bring together the edges of

4. refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

  Familiarity information: CLOSE UP used as a verb is uncommon.

• CLOSE UP (adverb)
  The adverb CLOSE UP has 1 sense:

1. very close

  Familiarity information: CLOSE UP used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLOSE UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cease to operate or cause to cease operating

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

close; close down; close up; fold; shut down

Context example:

close up the shop

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "close up"):

adjourn; retire; withdraw (break from a meeting or gathering)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Block passage through

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude

Context example:

obstruct the path

Hypernyms (to "close up" is one way to...):

hinder; impede (be a hindrance or obstacle to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "close up"):

block off; blockade (obstruct access to)

barricade; barricado (block off with barricades)

barricade (prevent access to by barricading)

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate (impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of)

tie up (restrain from moving or operating normally)

dam; dam up (obstruct with, or as if with, a dam)

block out; screen (prevent from entering)

earth up; land up (block with earth, as after a landslide)

bar; barricade; block; block off; block up; blockade; stop (render unsuitable for passage)

back up; choke; choke off; clog; clog up; congest; foul (become or cause to become obstructed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Unite or bring into contact or bring together the edges of

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

close; close up

Context example:

close up an umbrella

Hypernyms (to "close up" is one way to...):

join (cause to become joined or linked)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

be quiet; belt up; button up; clam up; close up; dummy up; keep mum; shut up

Context example:

The children shut up when their father approached

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Antonym:

open up (talk freely and without inhibition)

• CLOSE UP (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very close

Synonyms:

at close range; close up

Context example:

even firing at close range he missed

 Context examples 

Philae will also drill into the surface to study the composition, and witness close up how a comet changes as its exposure to the sun varies.

(Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic First Landing on a Comet, NASA)

Holes from piercing usually close up if you no longer wear the jewelry.

(Piercing and Tattoos, NIH)

I was so much startled that I struggled to withdraw, but the blind man pulled me close up to him with a single action of his arm.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I got up, I went to the door; I came back again; I walked to the window, across the room, then close up to her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He walked nearer than a hundred paces to it, and yet he did not become fixed as before, but found that he could go quite close up to the door.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The mist was spreading, and was now close up to the house, so that I could see it lying thick against the wall, as though it were stealing up to the windows.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was a large room fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. The fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If you won't let me live with you, I can build a house of my own close up to your door, and you may come and sit in my parlour when you want company of an evening.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When tea was over and Mrs. Fairfax had taken her knitting, and I had assumed a low seat near her, and Adele, kneeling on the carpet, had nestled close up to me, and a sense of mutual affection seemed to surround us with a ring of golden peace, I uttered a silent prayer that we might not be parted far or soon; but when, as we thus sat, Mr. Rochester entered, unannounced, and looking at us, seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle of a group so amicable—when he said he supposed the old lady was all right now that she had got her adopted daughter back again, and added that he saw Adele was prete a croquer sa petite maman Anglaise—I half ventured to hope that he would, even after his marriage, keep us together somewhere under the shelter of his protection, and not quite exiled from the sunshine of his presence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)