closedclosed /kləʊzd $ kloʊzd/ ●●● S3 adjective 
Make sure all the windows are closed. She kept her eyes tightly closed.2[not before noun] if a shop, public building etc is closed, it is not open and people cannot enter or use it SYN shut OPP open: The shops here are closed on Sundays.closed to the public/visitors etc The castle is closed to visitors in winter.3restricted to a particular group of people OPP open: The golf club has closed membership. a closed meeting The police have a closed circle of suspects.4not willing to accept new ideas or influences OPP open: You’re facing this situation with a closed mind.closed society/world/way of life Venetian art in this period was a closed world.5behind closed doors if something happens behind closed doors, it happens in private and the public are not allowed in: It seems that the deal was made behind closed doors. Football authorities ordered the club to play its next two games behind closed doors after the riots in February.6a closed book (to somebody) a subject or problem that someone does not know about or understand: Mathematics has always been a closed book to me.7a closed set (of something) a restricted group, or a group that cannot change or grow: The law is not a closed set of rules and principles. → in closed session at session(2)
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Community leaders are having a closed meeting with the mayor.
- During the period of the Cold War, many Communist countries were virtually closed societies.
- Again, you will have a closed circle of suspects.
- Her eyes kept flickering shut, though, and they finally stayed closed as she gently snoozed.
- Many social scientists have found the closed world of political extremists to be an exotic topic of study.
- Stepping towards the opponent's closed side provides fewer targets, though it does succeed in preventing an immediate, effective counter.
- The Macintosh, on the other hand, uses the Motorola 68000 and was designed as a closed architecture.
- We think, but we don't really know what they were saying to each other behind closed doors.
Longman Language Activatorwhen something bad has finished
if a problem or bad experience is over , it has ended: · There had been a fight in the bar, but when the police got there it was all over.· His captors finally released him, and his long ordeal was over.· In 1963, the White House wrongly predicted that the military action in Vietnam would be over by 1965.
if something unpleasant or something you have been worrying about is over and done with , it has finished and no longer affects you: · What happened many years ago is over and done with as far as I'm concerned.· They belonged to a part of her life that was over and done with.
if an unpleasant experience is behind you, it is finished so that it does not affect your life or feelings any more: · Because of the measures we have taken, the worst is now behind us.put something behind you (=deal with an unpleasant experience, so that it no longer affects you): · Counselling helped her put the experience behind her.
spoken use this to say that an unpleasant experience has ended and can be forgotten: · Your troubles are all in the past now.
use this to say that you are not willing to discuss a subject any more, especially because it is unpleasant or upsetting: · As far as I am concerned, the matter is closed.· Until we can talk about this in a civil manner, I consider the discussion closed.
when a door, entrance, lid etc has been shut not open: · Make sure all the windows are shut before you go out.· The gates were closed, and there was no other way in.tight shut: · Keep your eyes tight shut.
something that is locked has been shut using a key: · Jamie tried the door. "It's locked,'' he said.· All office workers should keep their personal belongings in a locked drawer.· I need my coat out of your car -- is it locked?
a door that is bolted has been shut by using a metal bar that slides across and prevents the door from being opened from the other side: · The door's bolted, we'll have to break it down.· Burglars can always find a way in, in spite of bolted doors and windows.
shut with something that prevents air or water from getting in or out: · Plants cannot survive in a sealed jar.· Sealed nuclear waste containers are then enclosed in concrete.
when a shop or office is closed also shut British if a shop or office shuts or closes , it stops being open for business: · "What time does the bank shut?" "Four o'clock."· Most of the stores close at 6:30.
also be shut if a shop or office is shut or is closed , it is not open for business: · The ticket office was closed.· It was nine o'clock and all the stores were shut.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY She kept her eyes tightly closed. The castle is closed to visitors in winter. The golf club has closed membership. a closed meeting The police have a closed circle of suspects. You’re facing this situation with a closed mind. Venetian art in this period was a closed world.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES I had my eyes half-closed. Janice likes to have the window open. She had her back to the door.
She kept her eyes tightly closed. The castle is closed to visitors in winter. The golf club has closed membership. a closed meeting The police have a closed circle of suspects. You’re facing this situation with a closed mind. Venetian art in this period was a closed world. (=not open to other people)· He didn’t have much experience of life beyond the closed circle of his family.
I had my eyes half-closed. Janice likes to have the window open. She had her back to the door. (=that only a few people are allowed to go to)· The senator attended a private meeting with the president.
· The mountain road was closed by snow.
· All the windows were closed.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN· Linear preoccupation in the past remains a closed book to modern understanding.· But your own past can be a closed book, even at fourteen.· The kitchenette is a closed book.· The highly organised St Stephen's Society programme which she now leads was at that time a closed book to her!· I tell myself it's a closed book, but my cover story becomes an old man's compensation.· I can not believe that it can be right that this late in the game Poetry is still a closed book.
· Again, you will have a closed circle of suspects.· The objectivity of the psychophysical laws - and the escape from the closed circle of experience - is more apparent than real.· It was too much of a closed circle.
· Estimates have now been obtained to install a closed circuit television system in both the Myles Meehan and the Long Gallery.· Not in person, but via a closed circuit television screen that fills an entire wall.· Obtaining the necessary, sometimes expensive, special equipment such as closed circuit television takes time and persistence.· The trial made legal history when child witnesses gave evidence using closed circuit television cameras.· It is a simple closed circuit television system, a video camera photographing a speech being rolled beneath it.· I turned our closed circuit cameras on to the flag-wavers and they appeared on the huge screens above the stage.
· Since words in the closed class have a syntactic rather than a semantic role in utterances they are also known as function words.· In addition to whole words, the closed class also contains affixes.· Like many distinctions, that between open and closed classes of lexical items is not an absolute one.· However, for the moment we will accept the division of lexical items into open and closed classes.· Stemberger compared the frequencies with which these three types of error occurred with open and closed class lexical items.· This might suggest that the major difficulty with closed class items is that they are harder to access than open class items.· So it seems unlikely that closed class items were more difficult to retrieve than open class items.· Words in the closed class, on the other hand, are used in order to express grammatical relations between words.
· She clutched the rail to steady herself, reached the deck and went to the closed doors of the lounge.· We think, but we don't really know what they were saying to each other behind closed doors.· Each band was identified only by a number, and they were marked by adjudicators sitting behind closed doors.· A closed door stops draughts spreading the flames, and dramatically slows the progress of a fire.· Now I was standing at the closed door listening to his absence.· In this case, it seems that the DoE will decide behind closed doors.· Conference officials chuckled when they heard Mr Milosevic yelling at Mr Karadzic behind closed doors.· Paige frowned at the closed door.
· Czechoslovakia still insists on an inflated hard currency exchange rate which reflects its closed economy.· Consider a simple closed economy with no government.· Stage 1 will tend to be more powerful than in a closed economy.· In a closed economy, it follows that by definition, Investment is seen as an activity of firms.
· It is from closed minds that so many social evils flow.· What is vital is that no employer should approach disciplinary problems with a closed mind.· What we seek is merely evidence that Pound didn't go to Sicily with a closed mind.· Openmindedness Open up to the possibility of how closed your mind is A closed mind is a small mind!· A closed mind is when you believe that your way of making profit is superior to everyone else's.· A closed mind is when you consistently believe that you're right and the other person is wrong.· Mirth is one of the gifts of men for it is an opener of the closed mind.
· Don't ask questions or ask closed questions.· A asks B closed questions, which B tries to answer as expansively as possible.· Many pupils were still asking closed questions that did not encourage or prompt elaborated answers.· In the meantime, closed questions can start us on the path to fuller negotiation.· With closed questions, the researcher has in some way limited the possible responses.· Open and closed questions with a period of miming thrown in.· If some one is: Talking too much, over-disclosing Ask closed questions which require yes, no or one-word answers.· When seeking information, use a closed question for a yes/no answer.
· As the working party suggested, a section of the Council meeting dealing with private Institute business was held in closed session.· In a closed session, Mr Modrow appealed to the delegates not to allow the party to disintegrate.· They claimed a report advising against fighting a costly appeal with the electricity giant should have been discussed in closed session.· The question of the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs was discussed in closed session, and their survival was subsequently decided.· The revelation was discussed at closed sessions of the Senate select committee on intelligence, chaired by Democrat David Boren.
· Systems consist of a very small number of terms which thus constitute closed sets.· Two separate operations are needed to normalise this sentence, one involving closed set items: 8a.
· This was not so easy at that time as the crewing arrangements were very much of a closed shop.· It was the last closed shop in Britain, he said, and it had to go.· The production unions' success had various causes, including an effective closed shop and weak newspaper managements.· Mr Fowler said it was an historic step, because the closed shop had existed for more than 100 years.· Therefore, your club must not be a closed shop.· The closed shop and the wildcat strike have undermined the legitimacy of modern trade unionism.· Their purpose was to weaken the closed shop and to outlaw secondary picketing.· Tebbit found himself unable to outlaw the closed shop entirely.
· A closed system is a system in which there is no net gain or loss of matter in the system.· In closed systems the fear of being considered faint-hearted, or uninvolved, or unsupportive prevents such doubts being voiced at all.· The attraction of their closed system was considerable.· This says that in any closed system disorder, or entropy, always increases with time.· The closed system is thus characteristic of grammar, the open set of lexis.
· This is especially true of elderly people in mental handicap hospitals who have lived in a closed world all their lives.· We are a closed world, having little contact with Federation authority.· Such contact can often help individuals to move out of their own, often closed world of despair.· For the public, a rare glimpse into a closed world.· Many social scientists have found the closed world of political extremists to be an exotic topic of study.· Sky, clouds, then down into the closed world of water sound distortion.· To be a true professional, you had to live in a closed world.· Everyone in the galaxy, probably even in the closed worlds, knows what those colours mean.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► a closed set (of something)PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► can do something with your eyes shut/closed
- Although America is a democracy, a lot of key decisions are made behind closed doors by unelected advisers.
- The board members met behind closed doors to discuss the deal.
- And, unlike most other House panels, the ethics committee conducts virtually all of its business behind closed doors.
- As the jurors deliberated behind closed doors, the judge huddled with lawyers from both sides in his chambers.
- Real's punishment was to play subsequent matches behind closed doors.
- Schmoke spent most of his time behind closed doors.
- The hearings are behind closed doors, Newsweek says, and it has not discovered the names of the companies implicated.
- We think, but we don't really know what they were saying to each other behind closed doors.
- But your own past can be a closed book, even at fourteen.
- He is holding a closed book, signifying a mystery, possibly a stage in the alchemical process.
- I can not believe that it can be right that this late in the game Poetry is still a closed book.
- I tell myself it's a closed book, but my cover story becomes an old man's compensation.
- Linear preoccupation in the past remains a closed book to modern understanding.
- The highly organised St Stephen's Society programme which she now leads was at that time a closed book to her!
- The kitchenette is a closed book.
- The Shoah will never be a closed book.
- But your own past can be a closed book, even at fourteen.
- He is holding a closed book, signifying a mystery, possibly a stage in the alchemical process.
- I can not believe that it can be right that this late in the game Poetry is still a closed book.
- I tell myself it's a closed book, but my cover story becomes an old man's compensation.
- Linear preoccupation in the past remains a closed book to modern understanding.
- The highly organised St Stephen's Society programme which she now leads was at that time a closed book to her!
- The kitchenette is a closed book.
- The Shoah will never be a closed book.
WORD FAMILYnouncloseclosureclosingadjectiveclosedclosingverbclose
1not open SYN shut OPP open: Make sure all the windows are closed. She kept her eyes tightly closed.2[not before noun] if a shop, public building etc is closed, it is not open and people cannot enter or use it SYN shut OPP open: The shops here are closed on Sundays.closed to the public/visitors etc The castle is closed to visitors in winter.3restricted to a particular group of people OPP open: The golf club has closed membership. a closed meeting The police have a closed circle of suspects.4not willing to accept new ideas or influences OPP open: You’re facing this situation with a closed mind.closed society/world/way of life Venetian art in this period was a closed world.5behind closed doors if something happens behind closed doors, it happens in private and the public are not allowed in: It seems that the deal was made behind closed doors. Football authorities ordered the club to play its next two games behind closed doors after the riots in February.6a closed book (to somebody) a subject or problem that someone does not know about or understand: Mathematics has always been a closed book to me.7a closed set (of something) a restricted group, or a group that cannot change or grow: The law is not a closed set of rules and principles. → in closed session at session(2)