English

Verb

close out ‎(third-person singular simple present closes out, present participle closing out, simple past and past participle closed out)

1. (transitive) to terminate; to call the end of.
   • 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport:

     Lisicki recovered quickly enough and broke once again at 1-1, using her heavy to serve to dominate before a sweetly-struck backhand down the line closed out the set after 43 minutes.

2. (surfing) Of a wave, to break all at once, instead of progressively along its length.
   • 2005: You either want to land on the top of the wave (if it has closed out), or in the transition — Pete Devries, Surfing Vancouver Island
3. (computing) To terminate a computer program.
4. Exclude by blocking all opportunities to enter or join.
   • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Steven Gerrard goal against Poland ensures England will go to World Cup (in The Guardian, 15 October 2013)

     Gerrard plainly had other ideas as he set off on that final, driving run into the opposition penalty area, slaloming between Kamil Glik and Grzegorz Wojtkowiak and getting his shot away as a third defender, Artur Jedzejczyk, and the goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, tried to close him out.

Usage notes

In computing sense, close and close out are both used, with close out being more informal, and more connotation of completely (as opposed to terminating a single window or document). Compare other computing phrasal verbs such as save down and print out.

Antonyms

• (computing): open up

Related terms

• closeout