close up

To shut and secure a building or business when people leave, usually until it opens again.

• We close up at six.
• She closed up the shop and went home.
• Have they closed up for the night?

How to use it: close up for something (The café closed up for the winter.)

Similar words: shut, close

Opposites: open up

Common phrases: close up shop, close up for winter

To shut completely or make an opening disappear.

• The flowers close up at night.
• We closed up the hole in the wall.
• The opening closes up when you release the handle.

How to use it: close something up (They closed the hole up with cement.)

Similar words: seal, shut

Opposites: open up

Common phrases: close up a gap, close up a hole

To move closer together until there is little or no space between people or things.

• The crowd closed up around us.
• Please close up so everyone can fit in.
• The soldiers closed up their ranks as they marched.

Similar words: bunch together, move together

Opposites: spread out

Common phrases: close up the ranks, close up together

If a wound does this, its edges join and the opening disappears as it heals.

• The cut is closing up.
• Her wound closed up after a few days.
• Has the small hole closed up yet?

Similar words: heal, seal over

Opposites: reopen

Common phrases: close up naturally, close up completely

To stop talking freely or showing your feelings, often because you feel hurt or uncomfortable.

• He closed up when I asked about school.
• She tends to close up around strangers.
• Why do you close up whenever we discuss your family?

Similar words: withdraw, clam up

Opposites: open up

Common phrases: close up emotionally, close up around someone

To keep someone or something inside a closed space.

• They closed him up in a room.
• The animals were closed up inside a small shed.
• She feared being closed up between those stone walls.

How to use it: close someone/something up in something (The prisoners were closed up in a dark cell.)

Similar words: confine, shut in, enclose

Opposites: release

Common phrases: close up someone, close up in something