close – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of close

Adjective: close

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativecloser
Superlativeclosest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • Is your house close?
  • Christmas is getting close.
  • […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit. [1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:]
  • No, but you were close.
  • We were so close to winning!
  • She wasn't quite in tears but she was close.
  • Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend. [2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:]
  • Phew! That was close!
  • Their ages are quite close.
  • His face is a close fit with the artist's impression.
  • It was a close contest.
  • a close translation; a close copy
  • He is a close friend.
  • My brother and I were close when we were younger, but not so much now.
  • For Christmas we just had a few close relatives round.
  • a close colleague; a close ally
  • We have a close affiliation with the college.
  • I keep in close contact with my former colleagues.
  • a close alley; close quarters; close confines
  • [...] he took to wondering what possible temptation could have induced a dingy-looking fly that was crawling over his pantaloons, to come into a close prison, when he had the choice of so many airy situations [...] [1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 41, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:]
  • For this job it's best to use wood with a close grain.
  • These trousers are a close fit.
  • He was captured and kept a close prisoner.
  • The pregnancy was a close secret.
  • His lawyers have so far kept this information close.
  • If the rooms be low-roofed, or full of windows and doors, the one maketh the air close, [...] and the other maketh it exceeding unequal. [1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:]
  • 1907, Algernon Blackwood, The Dance of Death …the artificial light and close air of his high office stool …
  • He sighed drowsily. The atmosphere of the auction room was close; you weren't allowed to smoke; and altogether he was beginning to regret that he had come. [1921, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter X, in Indiscretions of Archie:]
  • The golden globe being put into a press, [...] the water made itself way through the pores of that very close metal. [1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:]
  • The patient was kept under close observation.
  • Keep a close eye on him.
  • I must acknowledge that hitherto I have discover’d no other way to keep our Thoughts cloſe to their Buſineſs, but the endeavouring as much as we can, and by frequent Attention and Application, getting the habit of Attention and Application. [a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, page 90:]
  • This issue merits close examination.
  • Unfortunately, on close reading of the Ts and Cs, it appears that your insurance does not cover this.
  • to cut grass or hair close
  • There is no thinge ſo cloſe / that ſhall not be openned / and no thinge ſo hyd that ſhall not be knowen. [1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew x:[26], folio xiij, verso:]
  • As the alchymists were assiduous workmen—as they mixed all the metals, salts, &c... and subjected such mixtures to the action of heat in close vessels, their labours were occasionally repaid by the discovery of new substances... [1830, Thomas Thomson (chemist), The History of Chemistry, volume 1, pages 30–31:]
  • I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement. [1847, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:]
  • Crest, a cockatrice, wings close, vert, combed and wattled gu. [1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:]
  • Sable, an eagle close or - ROPER, Derby. / Sable, a chevron ermine between three eagles close argent - GAMES, Leicester, granted 1614. / Sable a chevron between three eagles close argent - JERVOISE. [1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 215:]
  • Arms : Azure, a chevron ermine between three cross - crosslets fitchy argent. Crest : An eagle close argent, ducally gorged. [1902, Lincoln's Inn (London, England), The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, page 458:]
  • Money is close.
  • Some of these parties have not paid their last payment, because money was close last fall. [1886, “Leases of Lands in the Indian Territory”, in United States Congressional Serial Set, volume 2362, page 184:]
  • We are told out West that the reason money is so close now is because so large an amount has been invested in real estate. I cannot understand why that would make any difference if that money has been sent from one section of the country into another for the purpose of buying real estate. Why should it make any difference as to money being close? We are told in the East large amounts have been invested in the large manufacturing plants, such as the steel plants, etc. but if the money has been invested there it has simply changed hands, and why should that make any difference? [1903, Gunton's Magazine of American Economics and Political Science, page 249:]
  • But there is reason underlying this confusion: time as well as money is close these days and a small wardrobe of hats can be very boring. [1965, Country Life - Volume 137, page 326:]
  • Yet were these Florentines as self-retired / In hungry pride and gainful cowardice, / As two close Hebrews in that land inspired, / Paled in and vineyarded from beggar-spies; [...] [1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XVII, page 57:]
  • [...] he was a crusty old fellow, as close as a vice. [1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe”, in Twice-Told Tales, volume I:]
  • Though a hard-grained man, close, dry, and silent, he can enjoy old wine with the best. He has a priceless bin of port in some artful cellar under the Fields, which is one of his many secrets. [1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:]
  • He yet kept himself close because of Saul. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Chronicles 12:1:]
  • her close intent [1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 57:]
  • close reasoning
  • Where the original is close no version can reach it in the same compass. [1690, John Dryden, Translations (Preface)]

Adjectives inflected like close

scarce, smoove, sombre, wholsome, sheene, bolshie, baroque, concrete, seveare, comf'table, shrewde, 'umble, grislie, unsubtle, ungentle, indiscrete, couthie, chavvie, lissome, cutesie, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

Borrowed from French clos, from Latin clausum, participle of claudō. See: French Adjectives 'clos'.

Verbs referencing "close"

Dutch Adjectives close, Galician Adjectives chouso.